


Runner's High

by hurtlocker



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Humor, Eventual Relationships, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, also there be fluffy dogs, also this is my first work, am i projecting onto lance im totally projecting onto lance, but still got stuff that may not be suitable for them youngins lol, changed rating bc its not as like mature as i thought it would be, idk - Freeform, pls be nice, soccer star lance, there may be smut but idk man, track and field keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 66,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hurtlocker/pseuds/hurtlocker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two boys meet in a yellow wood and Lance, well Lance cracks terrible puns. </p><p>aka how Lance comforts Keith and the two form a budding friendship where Keith instantly regrets but loves every moment they spend together. </p><p>A story of friendship, family and fluffy dogs.</p><p>warning: I'm a terrible writer; you have been forewarned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a lonely boy and some kid with a magic dog

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is one of my first proper fics I've wrote like ever so please be kind to me. It can either be a one off or a chaptered (trust me I have many ideas for many chapters) but depending on the response idk if I'll continue or not. If the people who read this (and if you do read this the whole way though we are instant bffs just saying) want more chapters then I'll be happy to oblige! There are probably a lot of grammatical errors and stuff but I'm still getting used to my writing style so if any one has any helpful comments or critiques that would be much appreciated!! Again thank you for taking the time to read my silly little fic yall the real MVPs. But yeah side note, Lance isn't Latino in this fic, I know everyone loves writing him that way but i wanted to try something different! It'll be obvious what ethnicity he is once you read but yeah I hope you guys like it!

_Are you okay Keith?_

Keith just kept going, trying to ignore his racing thoughts. His breath was starting to become more laboured and his legs were beginning to ache as his feet pounded against the ground.

_Hey you look upset, what’s wrong?_

He wanted to shut his eyes, block out all his senses and make it seem as if he was the only one in the world. He heard the telltale _thump thump thump_ as he passed over the wooden bridge that passed over the creek.

_Look at me, there’s clearly something wrong, are you sure you’re okay?_

He sounded so sad, Keith recalled, his face was covered with worry. Keith knew he should have expected as much, it was his own fault for doing something so rash. But what he said before Keith bolted out the door was what made Keith feel like he was the worst.

_You’ve been acting really weird lately, please tell me what’s been going on with you, you’re my friend Keith, I care about you._

Keith sped up, trying to block Shiro’s voice from inside his head, letting the pounding in his ears and the burning in his lungs take over.

He momentarily laughed at the irony of running being his way of coping. The only way he could deal was to literally run away from his problems. It was painful, exhausting and cathartic, which was why he did it so often. The trees blurred into green streaks as he raced past them, not really paying attention to where he was going but wanting to get as far away as possible from where he had been.

This trail was his favourite because not many people came by during this time of day, and Keith was free to run all he wanted, passing the occasional dog walker or elderly couple on a walk. He didn’t know how long he had been running for, all he knew was that when he sprinted out of Shiro’s front door it was late afternoon, and now the sun was starting to dip below the horizon and the air had started to chill.

His lungs felt like they were on fire and he could feel his legs starting to go weak, so he slowed down and eventually stopped. The overwhelming ache in his body confirmed that he wasn't cut out for long distance running. _Stick to sprinting_ He thought to himself. 

Resting his hand against a tree he bent over and attempted to catch his breath. The world around him started to spin a little causing Keith to close his eyes. He immediately regretted the decision as the events from earlier started to replay inside his head.

Why, why _why_ did he have to say something so stupid to Shiro? Why? It’s like his brain hated him and wanted him to say the dumbest thing possible. He had gone over to Shiro’s house to hang out, to play a game of pickup with some of the neighbourhood kids. Instead, he probably ruined his friendship with his best friend. After his breathing calmed down, Keith straightened himself and took in his surroundings.

He had no idea where he was.

It also didn’t help that the sun was starting to set, slowly dimming the world around him. Keith tried his best not to panic but it became increasingly hard the darker it got. It was still technically pretty bright, but the trees blocked out most of the sunlight around him. He looked around, surveying his surroundings for anything that looked familiar.

He tried backtrack a little, trying to find something, anything that looked familiar. He found a tall tree with a set of initials surrounded by a heart carved into the trunk, and he realized where he was. There was a sharp drop to his left into the creek at the bottom, and Keith was suddenly very glad he stopped when he did. He was pretty far into the trail, and it would probably take about half an hour to walk back to his house. He glanced down at his watch, and was informed that it was about a quarter to seven. It was technically almost the end of summer, but it was still summer for them in late August, meaning the sun didn’t go down for about another two hours. He was hit with a sudden wave of nausea, his head spinning and his knees going weak.

Keith gingerly sat down, letting his feet dangle over the edge over the bank. Now that his breathing had slowed and the pounding in his ears stopped, it was just him, a bunch of trees, and the wind. The events of the day started to rush back to him, and he was immediately overwhelmed with emotion. He felt guilty yelling at Shiro like that, nervous as to how he would react.

The worst part was that Shiro probably had no idea what was going on, he probably thought Keith was having an off day or something and had no idea how Keith was feeling. Keith made up his mind to just brush it off, try his best to apologize and make it seem like nothing. Hopefully they would go back to normal and Shiro would be none the wiser. For now though, sitting all by himself in the middle of the woods with the last bit of light for the day, he let his emotions get the better of him, and cried.

***

Keith was very glad that no one came up this way, he strayed a little bit from the main trail so that he was pretty much in the forest and was completely alone for the most part, and anyone who passed by wouldn’t hear him. He hated himself for getting so worked up like this but he was glad it was in the middle of the woods by himself than in front of anyone else. 

Keith was crying mostly out of frustration, angry at himself for doing something so dumb. Eventually he started to get the hiccups, his tears almost dried up but his breath still shaky. Keith rested his head against a tree, watching the creek ebb and flow. There were some ducks lazily swimming by, occasionally dipping under the water in search of food. Keith looked up, the sky was tinted orange, and it wouldn’t be that long until it was completely dark.

He heard a rustling coming from his left and whipped his head around towards the source of the noise. _Oh shit_ Keith thought, _is someone coming up here? Oh god they probably heard me crying this is so embarrassing oh my go-_

His panic was interrupted by the rustling slowly getting louder and gradually closer. Keith scrambled to try to get up but was too slow. The source of the noise and his resulting panic soon rounded the corner until they were in front of Keith.

_Arf!_

Keith found himself face to face with a dog. Possibly the fluffiest white dog he had ever seen.

He recognized the breed, they started with an S or something. It barked again, panting happily in front of his face, its tail waving back and forth. Keith was too surprised to move. The sun was hitting the dog from behind, casting a white halo around the dog’s fur, making it seem ethereal. He sniffled, confused as to what this dog was doing and how it had managed to find him. The dog barked once more, then nuzzled against Keith’s shoulder making little whining sound while it settled itself into Keith’s lap.

Was…was this dog trying to comfort him? Had it heard him crying and came to help? Whatever it was Keith was glad for it and took the most appropriate course of action in this situation.

He face planted directly into the dog’s fur, wondering how on earth it could be so fluffy.

They stayed like that for a little while, the dog’s breathing helping him to calm down. Keith was surprised at how docile this dog was, and how it managed to sit still for so long with Keith’s face buried into its back.

Suddenly, he heard something off to his left, the same way the dog had come.

“-Naaa!”

There was the sound of running, several twigs snapping and someone cursing very loudly.

“Lunaa! Where are you! LUNA! IF I LOSE YOU SAM IS NEVER GONNA FORGIVE ME!”

Keith glanced down at the dog in his lap, now noticing the pink collar around her neck. He lifted it up and sure enough written in cursive writing at the front, was the name Luna.

“Um…” Keith started before he hearing that his voice was totally hoarse both from the crying and not speaking in a while. He cleared his throat, trying again.

“UM,” He called out, “I THINK I HAVE YOUR DOG”

The voice stopped yelling for a second, Keith could hear the confusion from here.

“WAIT…WHERE ARE YOU?” The person yelled back.

“OVER HERE, UH…UP THE TRAIL.”

Suddenly the person started running, and Keith could hear the rustling of leaves gradually getting louder and louder. He quickly grabbed the fabric of his t-shirt and tried to wipe off any evidence of tears to some success before he was greeted with a tall lanky boy with tan skin and dark eyes looking panicked and out of breath.

“Luna!” He started before immediately cutting off when he noticed Keith, with his puffy face and red-rimmed eyes. Realization dawned on the face of Luna’s owner as his eyes flickered between his dog and Keith. He shifted awkwardly. 

“Uh…hi.” The boy said, giving a little wave. 

“…hi.” Keith said after a brief pause, too awkward to know how to continue.

Luna’s owner looked around awkwardly for a bit before crouching down and scratching Luna behind the ears, causing her to wave her tail excitedly. Surprisingly her owner didn’t seem too fazed finding his dog with a crying boy.

“So,” the boy started, “you got any of that blunt left?”

Keith stared at the boy. He looked completely serious. Was he serious?

The boy stared at him with a blank expression. Keith stared back, his face most likely giving away his utter confusion. They kept up the staring contest for a few moments before the other boy cracked, a grin starting to spread across his face. His smile was kind of infectious, but Keith just stared back awkwardly to thoroughly confused to reciprocate.

Luna’s owner laughed, “I’m just joking dude, trying to lift the mood. Rough day huh?"

Keith huffed out a dry laugh. "Yeah, you could say that."

The boy eventually sat down properly beside Keith, swinging his long legs over the edge and rocking them back and forth like a child on a swing. 

"So…uh" He coughed, "What’s got you so upset if you don’t mind me asking? Maybe I could help?”

Keith tensed, he didn’t really feel like telling a complete stranger he just met three minutes ago about how he blew up at his best friend. The boy looked like he really did want to help though. Still, Keith was afraid that he would tell him that he was overreacting, that he should just suck it up and apologize, that he shouldn’t have gotten mad in the first place.

“Uh, it’s not a big deal. Plus, I don’t wanna dump all my problems on you, I mean…we just met dude.”

“Hmm,” the boy looked up, putting one hand on his chin and the other on his hip, acting like he was deep in thought, “true, so here’s a better idea.”

He took Luna by the collar and turned her around so she was facing Keith, then hid behind her.

“Why don’t you tell lil ol’ Luna what’s made you so saaad?” said the boy, pitching his voice up and sounding ridiculous.

Keith couldn’t help it, he let out a laugh at how utterly unexpected that was, and how this kid had managed to get his voice so high.  

“Well Luna,” Keith said, playing along with her owner once he regained his composure, “It’s a bit of a long story, and I don’t know if you’re down to listen to me rant about my silly problems…it was mostly my fault anyway.”

“Well,” the boy continued, still in the ridiculous voice, “sometimes venting to someone, even if they are a complete stranger, might be good for you. Also I’m an adorable dog so what do you have to lose?”

“I dunno…I mean there’s no doubt you’re adorable,” He stroked her fur affectionately “but I don’t know if you wanna listen to me vent.”

Luna’s owner straightened himself out, and looked at Keith, his face serious but earnest, a stark difference to how silly he was acting earlier. “Its cool dude, just hoping I could help. But it seems like Luna has provided you with some comfort, so at least we did something didn’t we Luna?” He smiled at the dog and affectionately rubbed her head. She barked back in agreement.

Keith looked at him properly, taking a good look at his face. He seemed tall and skinny, probably taller than Keith from the looks of it, with long limbs and clothes that hung loosely off of him. Keith took notice of his big (kind of sparkly) eyes, hooked nose and warm coloured skin. His mouth reminded Keith of a cat; with the corners turned up a little, making it seem like he was always smiling or always up to something. Keith noticed that his nose would scrunch up and his eyes would crinkle when he smiled, making every smile of his seem genuine. The light from the setting sun was hitting him from behind, giving him the same ethereal glow Luna had earlier.

With a start Keith realized he’d been staring, and also that this guy was kinda _sorta_ really cute.

“Um, first of all,” Keith looked away out of embarrassment and coughed awkwardly, “can I just say…I think your dog has like superpowers or something, she must’ve heard me and came to calm me down.”

The boy laughed a little, “Yeah she has that effect on people, she used to be a therapy dog before we adopted her.” He smiled fondly at Luna, still stroking her fur - much to her excitement. Okay, his eyes were totally sparkling now.

“Huh,” Keith said trying – and failing – to not stare at they boy, “Explains why she’s so calm all the time.”

“I’m Lance by the way.” The boy – _Lance_ , said suddenly, holding out his hand.

“Keith.” He responded, accepting the handshake.

Lance nodded, and the two sat there in silence for a few moments, silent except for the sound of Luna’s breathing.

“So,” Lance started after about ten minutes, “are you feeling better now? Or do you wanna cuddle with my dog some more because I totally understand dude. Luna is like, ridiculously soft.”

Keith laughed a little in agreement, “Yeah, I definitely feel better, thanks. Luna is great, it’s just that…” He trailed off, unsure if he should continue. Lance did seem to be genuinely worried, his face an open book when it came to his emotions, but Keith didn’t want to saddle him with his problems, “you’re a stranger, I don’t want to burden you like that.”

Lance looked down towards the creek. He seemed lost in thought, absentmindedly stroking Luna’s fur.

“Lance Siddiqui.” He said suddenly. “Sixteen. I play soccer, forward. I have a big family - five siblings, three sisters and two brothers. God knows how many aunts, uncles and cousins. My favourite flavour of ice cream is mint chocolate chip and I can’t stand vanilla because that’s all they fed me when I got my tonsils removed. I have a scar on my stomach from the time my appendix exploded and The X Files is my favourite TV show.”

Keith stared at him. He didn’t know how to respond. Lance was genuinely trying, so it was only fair to reciprocate.

“Um. Keith Cho. Eighteen. I’m on the track and field team um, one hundred and four hundred meter dash. I don’t have any siblings.”

 _Or any family._ Keith thought to himself, but didn’t feel the need to share that tidbit of information.

“My favourite colour is red, my favourite season is autumn. My favourite band is Vampire Weekend but I uh, also really like k-pop. I don’t really watch TV but I do have a scar on my arm from the time I tried to prove to my friend that I could climb this really big tree when we were eight. Needless to say I couldn’t.”

Lance looked at Keith, smiling; “There. Now we’re not strangers.”

Keith took a deep breath, finally conceding. He was embarrassed at his actions for earlier, but bottling up his emotions wasn’t gonna help anyone. “It’s just that – I did something a kinda regret.”

“Like…you cussed at your mom kinda regret or got a tattoo while drunk regret?”

“Like yelling at my best friend for no reason other than he was happy and I’m a jealous piece of shit regret.”

The words kind of tumbled out of Keith’s mouth and he froze, surprised by his own bluntness. He and Lance exchanged looks for a moment before the other boy opened his mouth. Then closed it, Keith could see the gears turning in his head. Lance opened his mouth and tried again, choosing his words carefully.

“Do you have a… _crush_ on this friend?”

“Nah, I care about him. But not like that”

“Okay,” he took a breath, “are they dating someone?”

Lance was looking at him curiously, but his face was covered with concern.

“…Yeah”

“And you’re jealous of this other person?”

Keith nodded. “Sorta?”

“What did you say to your friend?”

Keith groaned at the memory from earlier that day.

“I just…might of exploded at him” Keith started, realizing that if he came this far he couldn’t stop now.

“-and I didn’t mean to its just that, I don’t…have many friends because I’ve moved around a lot and like, I’ve known Shiro since I was a kid he’s been one of the only constant things in my life,” Keith started feeling like a kettle slowly letting out steam that had been building up.

“People don’t stay in my life for long but Shiro has. We’ve always been together and I don’t have anything against his girlfriend she’s great! She’s smart and funny and kind. We actually get along really well. They’re perfect for each other! I’m not jealous that they’re dating and I don’t know _why_ I got so upset I just _did_.” 

The words kept tumbling out and Keith couldn’t stop now, he even surprised himself at how open he was being with a semi-complete stranger.

“And we we’re hanging out just us, like we had just finished playing a game of basketball when he got a call from Allura and his face just lit up. And for some reason I got upset like, I wasn’t jealous more just… sad?” He admitted, feeling terrible that he was upset at his friend’s happiness.

“I don’t know I guess it’s because he’s been spending a lot of time with her I mean they’re dating so I get it! They’re obviously gonna spend a lot of time together. I just thought that today it would be just us like I wanted to spend time with him because I guess I was feeling…lonely.” Keith felt his last bit of steam escape him as he came to the realization that the reason he was so upset was because he was feeling lonely and wanted Shiro to hang out with only him. _How pathetic_ he thought to himself.

He sighed heavily, “-so I said I was going home, and I’m sure it was pretty obvious that I was upset. So then he’s like don’t worry I’ll hang up then asked me what was wrong.” Keith paused remembering the concerned look that covered Shiro’s face.

“Then I was like nah its nothing I don’t feel well. You can go hang out with your _girlfriend_ it’s alright and it came out really bitter.” Keith took a shaky breath “-and he said that he promised to spend that day with me so he was gonna do that. I insisted it was okay but he just kept pestering me and I guess I just got fed up! He tried to stop me from leaving so he grabbed my shoulder and then-” He looked at Lance, he was listening intently and matched Keith’s gaze when he looked at him. Keith felt his face crumple.

“-I yelled _don’t touch me_ really loudly to his face and slapped his hand away and just…” Keith recalled the look of hurt that was clear on Shiro’s face and groaned, covering his face in his hands. “And then to add salt to the wound, he said he was worried and he cared about me and you know what I said _? No you don’t!”_ Keith groaned again, his guilt flooding back to him, flopping over until he was face first in Luna’s fur.  

 _“_ Afterwards I said that I wasn’t feeling well and just… _left._ Oh god he’s gonna hate me it’s over, Keith said through his fingers, “it’s done, fifteen years of friendship down the drain _goodbye_ -“

“Keith.”

“-I mean why would he still stay friends with me I should just move far away or something and like-“

 _“Keith.”_  

“-He doesn’t even know what he did wrong! He’s probably gonna beat himself up over it I’m the worst-”

Lance put his hands on Keith’s shoulders and turned him so they were looking each other in the eye. “You’re _not_ the worst”

“ _Yes,_ I am.”

“No, you’re _not._ Everyone gets upset over stuff, everyone says dumb shit to people they care about. You’re human, you’re not perfect and you’re allowed to feel emotions even those that aren’t necessarily good.”

“But-“

“So you fucked up!” Lance threw his hands up, “Yes, you fucked up. So what? You were feeling lonely and wanted your friend to hang out with you what’s wrong with that! I doubt someone who has been friends with you for most of your life is going to hate you over one incident like that. You said it yourself, he wasn’t mad he just seemed worried.”

Keith didn’t know what to say. Lance wasn’t judging him, didn’t tell him that he was overreacting like he expected he would. Instead, Lance was _listening_ to him and taking into consideration his feelings, but also not coddling him either.

“I guess…but what am I supposed to say to him when I see him?” Keith started to get angry, not at Lance but at himself “hey, so I have no other friends and I’m so utterly dependent on you that as soon as you found someone that you spend more time with than me I get so jealous and don’t know how to cope so my only reaction is to blow up on you!” His voice was slowly starting to get loud “Oh, and by the way! I get lonely every time we’re not together so I need you to hang out with me twenty four seven just me and you!” He was breathing heavily now. Lance just looked at him, his face completely calm.

“Yes.” He said after a beat.

Keith stared at him, dumbfounded.

“What?”

“I mean, maybe not those words exactly, but I think you should tell him how you’ve been feeling.”

“That is a _terrible_ idea.”

“Well it’s better than you brushing it off, apologizing, and then feeling depressed and guilty every time you see him and letting situations like this happen again.”

 If it was possible to stare harder than he already was, Keith was doing it.

How the hell was this kid he just met able to read him so perfectly? Keith was at a loss for words again, he couldn’t really argue with Lance but he didn’t really feel like telling him he was right either.

“Look Keith, experience has told me that keeping stuff like this bottled up is gonna bite you in the ass later. Guaranteed.”

“So,” he paused to scratch Luna behind the ears, “being honest with your friend Shiro is going to help you understand each other more, its gonna change the way you guys act around each other but it’ll be for your benefit because now you’ll have less misunderstandings between you. He’ll know why you’re acting the way you are, and how to react. This whole situation is nobody’s fault in particular but Keith-”

He paused, his tone growing more serious. “You can’t depend on Shiro so much. You need to branch out and find more people to hang out with, because it seems like Shiro is doing exactly that and it isn’t fair to both of you to only spend time with each other.”

Keith was genuinely shocked at how this kid who had made a weed joke upon finding a crying boy in the woods was giving him actual solid advice.

He slumped, he couldn’t really argue. It was hard to admit but Lance was right.

“You-you’re right.” He sighed heavily. “I’m terrified though. But knowing Shiro he’s probably going to forgive me no matter what.”

“See? What do you got to lose? Besides a decades old friendship possibly - but I digress, talking to Shiro is gonna benefit the both of you, isn’t that right Luna?”

_Arf!_

Keith chuckled. “Well if Luna agrees, I really can’t argue can I?”

Lance beamed at him, obviously happy to be of some help.

“Oh and on that note.” Lance mumbled, turning around to pull something out of his pocket. “I’ll help you with your first step in branching out.”

He handed Keith something silver and shiny; it took a second before Keith realized what it was.

“Your phone?” Keith stared at it, not realizing immediately what Lance was asking. “You want…my number?”

Lance laughed a little at that: “Yes Keith, that’s usually what people want when they hand you their phones.”

“I don’t have mine on me though. I left it at home.”

“It’s alright, I’ll just text your number and you can add me later. I mean,” Lance paused suddenly unsure of himself, retracting his hand a little. “If you uh-if you want to, that is.”

Keith blinked at him a few times, surprised at how straightforward Lance was being. Was he pitying him? He couldn’t tell if Lance was just being courteous or if he actually wanted to be friends, but then again Lance could’ve just helped him feel better and then walked away, never to see him again. Or he could’ve ignored him entirely, Keith realized. He could’ve taken Luna by her collar, ignored Keith and walked away. But he didn’t.

“So…can I have yo’ number?” Lance joked, interrupting his thoughts.

Keith stared at him: “Is that a reference to-”

“Yes.”

Keith shook his head, smiling all the while as he finally took Lance’s phone. He was greeted with a photo of Luna and a smiling older man, and while they hadn’t known each other long, he noticed the man in the photo had the same smile as Lance. Keith figured it was probably his father.

He typed in his contact information and handed the phone back to Lance. As soon as it was back in his hands Lance immediately held it up: “Smile!”

Keith whipped his head around in surprise, ready to interject but soon heard the _click!_ of Lance’s phone taking a picture.

“Wait what? That’s not fair! Show me that!” Keith scrambled to try to grab Lance’s phone out of his hand.

“Too late! It’s here forever. Also you look like a deer in headlights so no way I’m deleting that.”

“Lance!”

“Think of it as a testament to our newfound friendship. I’m annoying you now and I’ll probably annoy the hell out of you on many more occasions to come.” He said with a laugh. “You’re stuck with me now so you better get used to this.”

Keith paused at that, a small blush working its way up his cheeks and a fluttery feeling starting to form in his stomach. He mentally chided himself for getting so worked up about making one friend but at the same time, the last friend he made that stuck around with him long enough was Shiro. He had every right to be happy.

He looked at the other boy, who was smiling at him mischievously. “Alright.” Keith said with a nod. “To our new friendship. But just wait, I’ll get you back for that.”

They sat like that for a few moments, enjoying the slight chill in the air and the sound of lapping water. They talked, telling each other about their interests, hobbies and friends. Keith learned that Lance had two best friends named Pidge and Hunk, who according to Lance were a ‘small snarky gremlin kid and a giant teddy bear.’ Keith told Lance about Shiro, how they met at school, how he was on the baseball team and how Keith thought baseball was boring despite going to every one of Shiro’s games. Every so often Lance would crack terrible jokes in an attempt to make Keith laugh.

(“Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda?”

 “…what?”

 “He’s lucky it was a _soft_ drink.”

“…that was terrible.”

“So this girl said she knew me from a vegetarian restaurant,”

“Lance, _no”_

“but, I’d never met _herbivo-ouch_ don’t throw twigs at me that’s rude _.”_

 “Boooo, also stop finger gunning at me!”)

The two bid their farewells shortly after that, each going in their separate ways. It turns out Lance lived not too far from Keith, and it was a surprise the two hadn’t ever run into each other before. Keith headed back to his empty apartment, opening the windows and letting some cool air in.

He picked up his phone that he had abandoned on his desk. _One (1) new message_ it read, next to an unknown number.

Keith unlocked his phone and tapped on the message icon, barking out a laugh at the text he had received. It consisted of a short two word message, no name or anything, but Keith had no doubts who it was from.

\--- 

_|555-6732 (555-6732) 8:32 pm|_

_Blaze it._

_\---_

“Goddammit, you loser.” Keith laughed to himself, wondering how on earth he had manage to befriend someone so ridiculous.

As he started to drift off he was hit with a sudden thought.

Keith smiled to himself, happy that he finally remembered what breed of dog Luna was.

_Samoyed._


	2. apologies and dumb texts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The BFFLs are introduced and heck, even they (unknowingly) ship KLance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the Kudos and comments on the last chapter!! I appreciate every single one of them a lot ;---; I wasn't sure if I was gonna continue with this but yall said you liked it so I am!! You guys are the best <3  
> Also lots of hugs and crying in this chapter. But mostly hugs.  
> Also I've decided to update the chapters so the stuff that goes on reflects what's going on IRL. Like how it's summer right now and school is gonna start soon, its the same in the fic :^) So...who knows how long this is gonna go on for (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“So you’re telling me, your first response to finding a boy crying in the woods was to make a _weed joke?”_

“Listen, I was trying to lighten the mood Pidge. Stop looking at me like that.”

“Oh I’m gonna totally keep looking at you _like that_ dude, who the fuck says that to someone who’s crying?” Pidge looked at him over the top of their glasses like a disappointed librarian.

 _“Lance_ , that’s who.” Hunk chimed in.

“I don’t need your sass Hunk.”

“I’m not sassing you, it’s the truth.”

The three of them were sitting in Lance’s bedroom, it was a lazy summer afternoon in the last days of August, one of their last before school started in about a week and a half.

Pidge was perched atop Lance’s office chair which was far too big for them, engulfing their tiny frame. Lance was sprawled across his own bed, his feet resting against the wall on one end and his head dangling off the other side, while Hunk was sitting on the ground, resting against Lance’s bed right next to his friend’s upside down head. It was still insanely hot, and each of them had popsicles dangling out of their mouths to help with some of the heat as Lance colorfully recalled the story of his search for Luna-turned-impromptu-therapy-session-in-the-woods-turned-befriending-of-a-total-stranger.

“Anyway,” Lance retorted, taking a bite of his popsicle with his front teeth, much to Hunk’s horror, “I made him feel better, aren’t you guys proud of me?” He smirked at them. They responded with unimpressed looks.

“And now we’re friends!” He finished triumphantly, turning around in a flourish; causing drips of melted popsicle flying everywhere. “I even got his number! I mean, he hasn’t responded yet, but we’re like totally bff’s now.” Hunk grabbed Lance’s hand to stop the sudden downpour of popsicle.

“Congrats.” Pidge deadpanned, “The dude was probably trying not to hurt your feelings. I don’t understand why he was willing to put up with someone so obnoxious for longer than ten minutes.”

“You guys put up with me.” Lance retorted, with his mouth full of popsicle in a last ditch effort to finish it.

“That’s because I’m equally as obnoxious and Hunk is far too nice for his own good.”

“You guys aren’t obnoxious! Just…energetic!”

Lance and Pidge exchanged looks, “See?” Pidge said, gesturing to Hunk with his popsicle stick. “He proved my point.”

Hunk was about to retort before there was a very loud _sching_ indicating that Lance had gotten a text. All three heads turned to the source of the noise, which was sitting atop a small table in the middle of the room, an equal distance from all of them. Lance and Pidge shared a quick look and all Hunk could do was mumble a quick _oh no_ before his two friends lunged for the phone at the same time.

Pidge had quicker reflexes and was able to snatch up the phone before Lance, causing the other to almost land face first on the table.

“Oooh who is it from?” Pidge teased dangling the phone is Lance’s face, “Your new _friend?”_ emphasizing the last word.  

“Listen homie, you’re acting like it’s a message from my crush. Why must you be like this?”

“Because you annoy me, then I annoy you, and Hunk is the middleman. It’s the circle of friendship dude, I don’t make the rules.”

Lance rolled his eyes at them, mumbling something about regretting becoming friends with someone so nosy.

Pidge glanced down on the screen and sure enough, a little notification banner on the screen read _New Text Message Keith Cho – Contents Hidden._

Pidge looked up at Lance, smiling conspiratorially and pushing their glasses up like some terrible 90s anime villain. It didn’t help that they had sat back down on the office chair, turning around dramatically as they unlocked Lance’s phone right in front of him.

“Who do you think you are, Gendo Ikari?!” Lance yelled, pointing his popsicle stick right back at Pidge, “Also gimme back my phone!”

“Well we wouldn’t be in this situation if you didn’t come up with such obvious passwords.”

“Listen, I have a hard time remembering more than like, three passwords, cut me some slack.”

“Hmmm” Pidge mused, “nope!” Turning their face back onto the screen to read the text.

“Okay first of all,” Pidge started, glancing up at Lance with another unimpressed look, “the first thing you texted him was _blaze it?”_  

Hunk giggled from the corner he was sitting in, “God Lance, you’re so lame.”

“Well he probably found it _hilarious_.” He said indignantly, but it was obvious he was waiting to hear from Pidge what Keith’s response was.  

“Well it seems like your new friend agrees with us, because his response was and I quote: _You’re such a loser Lance colon lowercase p.”_

Lance smiled, warmth filling his chest. He was worried Keith had gotten annoyed with his antics, or was put off at how overbearing he thought he had been. Lance didn’t want to admit it, but he was worried Pidge was right, and the other boy only befriended him out of kindness, or pity. Keith had seemed like a good guy, and Lance was always happy to make new friends. So this one silly response to his silly text quelled his worries that Keith didn’t actually like him. At least for the moment.

Hunk noticed Lance’s smile and nudged him on the shoulder, “Someone’s happy.”

“Huh? Oh yeah well,” Lance started, awkwardly looking away, “like Pidge said, people usually get too fed up of me to stick around for too long, so I haven’t made a new friend in forever. I mean, it’s a miracle you two have managed to be friends with me as long as you ha- _oof!”_ His moment of introspection was interrupted by Hunk engulfing him in a giant bear hug.

“Don’t say that buddy! We love you, right Pidge?” The larger boy said, smushing his face against Lance’s.

They shrugged their shoulders, “ _Eh.”_

“ _Pidge.”_

“I’m kidding, I wouldn’t hang out with you guys if I didn’t want to. So consider yourselves lucky.”

Lance and Hunk both laughed at that. Out of the corner of his eye Lance noticed Pidge fiddling with his phone some more, “Pidge I swear to god if you’re typing out some embarrassing response, you better stop right now.” He held his hand out and Pidge begrudgingly gave it back to him.

“Boo, you’re no fun.” Was all they said but upon glancing down at his phone again he noticed there was a third text in the conversation.

From Lance.

\---

_Lance S. (555 – 6723) 4:37 pm_

_It seems you like that about me ;) xoxo_

_\---_

He looked up at horror at his friend, who was now wearing the most shit-eating grin he had ever seen.

“PIDGE! WHAT THE EVERLOVING _FUCK_?” But his complaints were lost over the sound of Pidge doubling over in laughter, Lance’s mother yelling at him to stop yelling, and Hunk asking what was going on.

***

 _It’s alright._ He said to himself, taking a deep breath. _You can do this Keith._

He was currently standing outside the door to Shiro’s home, his hand hovering awkwardly over the doorbell, unsure. It had been about three days since his fight with Shiro and his first encounter with Lance, and Keith had finally mustered up the courage to go apologize. He spent the time in between going on as many runs as he could, trying to clear up his mind. Every time he approached the turn into Shiro’s neighbourhood he kept going, still too afraid to go confront him.

Keith held out hope that he would bump into Lance again on one of these runs, and that he would help him suck it up and go apologize. He would idle by a bench, pretending to tie his shoe or stretch, but every time Keith was met with disappointment. He didn’t meet any lanky boys or fluffy white dogs while he was out.

 _Cmon, you can do it._ Keith chided himself, trying to snap back to the present. _Remember what Lance said. This will be good for both of you._  

He still hesitated to do it. Choosing instead to pace around on the porch for a few moments. Keith recalled the plan he had come up with before heading over here. He would apologize, explain his feelings and everything would be all hunky dory. It wasn’t that hard.

So _why_ couldn’t he just ring the goddamn doorbell?

“Are you gonna come in Keith, or am I going to have to call the police on you for loitering?”

Keith snapped his head up and was met with a tall woman, slightly taller than Shiro, with shoulder length black hair and the same athletic build that all the members of the Shirogane family seemed to share. She was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, looking ready to head out.

“Oh, um, hi Kaori.” Keith responded sheepishly. He didn’t even hear the door open.

“Are you here to see Takashi?” She asked Keith, looking amused. He replied with a nod, not looking at her directly. Despite knowing her for as long as he had known his best friend, Shiro’s older sister still intimidated the heck out of Keith. She treated him like her own brother, it was just that she was just so _tall_ and could probably throw Keith fifty yards with one arm.

“He’s upstairs if you’re wondering, no one else is home right now. I’m off to practice.”

“Oh okay, I’ll make sure to lock the door when you leave.”

She smiled down at him and ruffled his hair, “I have a game coming up in a few days, and I expect the two of you to be there.”

Keith nodded again. Unlike Shiro’s baseball games which he admittedly found boring, watching Kaori play volleyball was amazing. She was also prone to being overly dramatic every time she scored a spike, which Keith thought was awesome.

“I’ll be there.” He responded.

She nodded again and stepped aside to let Keith in. Picking up her sports bag she started to head out before clapping Keith on the shoulder.

She looked over his head when she spoke, “Listen, whatever it was, whatever you said, just know that he loves you. You guys have worked though worse. So don’t fret, okay?” She ruffled his hair one more time before leaving, closing the door behind herself. Keith turned around and locked the door, feeling a twinge of guilt in his chest.

He sighed for about the millionth time that day, his head thunking against the door. He turned around, looking at the stairs with a feeling of dread. They’d gotten into fights before, and apologizing was a similar process. With Keith being terrified until he either sucked it up, was pushed into apologizing (usually by Kaori) or Shiro apologizing first. Today wasn’t any different.

_Except it was because I’ve never said something so hurtful to him before._

Keith physically shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. _Alright Cho, you can do this. Remember what Lance said. Just be honest._

He slid off his sneakers and slowly started to ascend the stairs, passing by several family portraits that hung along the wall. Shiro’s first little league game. A recent family portrait in traditional attire. The two kids sitting on Santa’s lap, Shiro smiling brightly despite missing his front two teeth. A five year old Kaori holding a days old Shiro while they sat next to their grandparents.

Some of the pictures even featured Keith, his favourite was one with all of them around the dining table. It was breakfast time, and all three children were arguing over who would get the last pancake, which resulted in the great whipped cream war of ’06. Shiro’s mother could be seen in the background laughing, and his father’s thumb was noticeable in the corner of the lens as he snapped a picture of the three in the middle of flinging whipped cream at one other. It was one of the few moments that they were all together, before Shiro’s parents were insanely busy all the time.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice that he was standing in front of Shiro’s bedroom door. Keith could see the faint outline of _Takashi_ left over in old glue on the door from the time Shiro proudly displayed his name in stickers. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he stood in front of the door, trying to calm himself down. _Here we go_ Keith thought before lightly knocking on Shiro’s door.

“Come in.” He heard Shiro say softly from the other side.

Keith took a deep breath and slowly nudged open the door. Shiro’s back was to him, hunched over his desk as he read old notebooks, probably preparing for the new school year. “Before you ask Nee-san, I’m fine. Just tired.” He definitely sounded tired, Keith noticed.

When he didn’t get a response, Shiro started to turn around, “What is it, I said I would rather be left alo-” He froze when he saw Keith, who tensed in return.

The first thing Keith noticed was that Shiro looked tired, like he didn’t get a lot of sleep. That was another thing that didn’t help with Keith’s guilt.

“Keith.” Shiro said softly, almost like he couldn’t believe it.

“Hey.” Keith responded softly, not knowing how to begin. He looked around nervously, wondering what he should say.  Lance’s voice echoed in his head: _be honest._ Keith decided that there was only really one way to go about this.

He looked up at Shiro, whose brows that were furrowed with worry suddenly went up a little, surprised when Keith started walking towards him with purpose. Keith stipped when he standing in front of Shiro looking him directly in the eye as he blurted out, “I’m sorry!”

“Wait Keith don’t-don’t apologize I obviously did something to upset y-”

Keith put a hand up, signalling Shiro to stop talking.

“Nope, no, nuh-uh, none of that okay. It was my fault and I want you to hear me out. Actually-” Keith paused remembering another thing Lance had said to him. “It’s neither of our faults, it’s just that I might have overreacted a little. And- _agh!_ Lemme start over.” His thoughts were starting to get jumbled and Keith was beginning to get frustrated. He sat down on the edge of Shiro’s bed and tried to collect his thoughts.

“Listen Shiro,” Keith started. “You already know that besides you and your family, I don’t have many people in my life.” He noticed that Shiro was about to say something and held up his hand again. “Just let me finish please.”

“I mean there’s our classmates, the track and field team and my coworkers. But what I mean is that there aren’t that many people I would really consider friends or people that I actually want to spend time with besides you. It doesn't help that I'm pretty terrible at keeping friends.

I’ve come to the realization, and by that I mean I’ve basically had someone tell me, that it’s not fair to both of us if we only spend time with each other.” Keith explained, repeating the same words Lance had said to him. “That’s why-“

“Oh my god” Shiro interrupted, “Are you-are you friend breaking up with me?” He sounded like he was only half joking, and by the look on his face Keith could tell he was legitimately concerned.

“What!? No! Shiro, listen to me. What I’m trying to say that is when you’re not around I get-” Keith paused, feeling really embarrassed but he had to say it. “I get…lonely. Like ridiculously lonely. Like, I sit around and cry, lonely.” Keith hated admitting it, but Shiro had to know if he wanted to understand why Keith had been acting like he had lately. “Before it wasn’t a problem like, I don’t need to be with you all the time obviously, I like having time to myself when I can but,” The guilt started creeping back to him. He made the mistake of glancing at Shiro’s face, and his friend looked so sad. Keith screwed his eyes shut. 

“Ever since you’ve started dating Allura, you’ve started hanging out with her more, and I’m not blaming you! Like of course you would spend a lot of time with her! And you have every right to hang with her more, you’re dating!” Keith exclaimed, mimicking his words that he said to Lance the other day.

“And knowing you two, if I told you all this earlier you’d invite me on your dates or something,” Keith huffed out a laugh “But like I said, it’s not fair to any of us and just- _god_ _I’m bad at this_ , but the other day I blew up at you because I was just feeling really lonely lately ‘cause we weren’t hanging out as much as we used to and I guess…” He trailed off, ashamed.

“I guess I got really jealous? That she was spending time with you and I wasn’t. And that day we were supposed to hang out just the two of us. I called you up because I was feeling lonely.

So when she called I just got really mad, mostly at myself for being so jealous in the first place and I took my frustration out on you.” Tears started to well up in Keith’s eyes as he recalled the hurt look on Shiro’s face when he pushed him away the other day. He opened his eyes and looked directly at Shiro.

“I-I didn’t mean what I said the other day Shiro,” He sniffled, his voice cracking a little, “I know you care about me, I was just mad, I’m sorry. I understand if you’re upset at me and-” He took a shaky breath trying his hardest not to start full on sobbing, “-and if you don’t forgive me I get-” He didn’t get to finish his sentence before Shiro engulfed him in a hug, holding him close.

“Keith” He whispered, and it sounded like he was trying hard not to cry himself “I would never hate you. You're basically my family at this point." The tears spilled over at that, and Keith buried his face in Shiro's shoulder. "I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were feeling so lonely. And I’m not upset at you, I was just worried I had done something to make you hate me. What can I do to help just tell m-”

“It’s okay,” Keith cut in, patting him on the back, “You didn’t know, heck _I_ didn’t even know until I thought about it. It’s neither of our faults but now you know, so that’s a start.”

“Yeah, thanks for telling me Keith.” He held him a little closer. “I’ll take your feelings into consideration from now on.”

Keith raised his arms and hugged Shiro back. They stayed like that for a little while until they both calmed down.

“Just for the record Shiro, this is how you know you’re important to me. You know I never cry in front of anyone. Not willingly at least. God, I’m so _gay._ ”

“Well yes, yes you are.” Shiro said matter-of-factly.

“Ha, ha.” Keith responded dryly, lightly hitting him on the shoulder.

Shiro laughed at that, breaking away from Keith and handing him a box of tissues.

“Plus,” Keith mumbled nervously “you don’t have to do anything because,”

He paused, kind of embarrassed. Why was he embarrassed?  

“Because?” Shiro prompted, curious.

“I uh,” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, looking anywhere but at Shiro, “made a friend.”

“You made a friend?” Shiro repeated. Keith looked up at him; Shiro's head was tilted, his face going from a look of confusion, to realization, to happiness, all in a matter of moments. “You made a friend!”

“Oh my god don’t,” Keith groaned, flopping back on Shiro's bed. “You’re making it seem like I’m some little kid who’s telling their parents about their first day at kindergarten.”

“But Keith, you said it yourself. You don’t have many people you consider friends, so this is great!”

He looked up at Shiro, his friend was genuinely happy for him, beaming fondly like a proud parent. Keith huffed out a laugh at Shiro’s enthusiasm.

“So what’s their name? What are they like? How did you meet?” Shiro prompted, nudging Keith on the knee.

“Shiro, please.”

“Aw c’mon Keith, I wanna know.”

“Alright, alright. His name is L-.”

“Wait, wait, before that I have a really important question to ask you.” He looked at Keith really seriously, causing the other to worry a little.

“What is it?”

Shiro’s face hardened, really causing Keith to worry now. He took a deep breath.

“Is he cute?”

“ _Shiro!”_ Keith shrieked, appalled and quickly sitting up again.

“What? I’m asking seriously Keith, do you think he’s cute?” He was starting to crack, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

“Oh my god I am _not_ answering that.” Keith could feel his ears heating up.

“Well, I’ll probably meet him eventually so I’ll see for myself, or from your response.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Well if the way you shyly mentioned him is any indicati-“

“ANYWAY,” Keith cut in really loudly, trying to change the topic, “His name is Lance…”

Keith began to recount the story, describing how after they fought he decided to go for a run and eventually ended up in the woods. He told Shiro how Luna the totally magic dog had managed to find him, (“I kind of want to meet this dog more than I wanna meet Lance to be honest.” “I don’t blame you.”) with Lance following suit right after. He recounted how Lance had comforted him then offered to be his friend. He didn’t leave out the terrible jokes or ridiculous puns either. Shiro laughed outright at Keith’s anguish as he retold some of the terrible puns Lance had told him to try to cheer him up. 

“Well he definitely sounds… _interesting._ ”

“That’s putting it lightly.”

“Well he sounds like a good guy. I’m happy you found a friend Keith.”

“Yeah, I mean…I don’t know if I would exactly consider us friends yet though. Like, we’ve talked once for like an hour and I only really know the bare minimum about him. Plus, there’s no guarantee we’ll actually see each other again. Also, his personality is so different from mine. I feel like under any other circumstance I probably would've hated him.

“I doubt that. Plus, he gave you his number didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did.” Suddenly remembering the text he received. “Do you know what he texted me?” Keith pulled out his phone from his pocket and brought up the message on the screen, handing his phone over to Shiro.

Shiro’s eyebrows shot up and he let out a chuckle at the text, but he didn’t seem surprised.

“How come you haven’t texted him back yet?” Shiro inquired, handing Keith back his phone.

“Uh…it was late last night so I forgot I guess.” Accepting his phone from Shiro, “But I also don’t know what to say?”

“Keith, it’s not that big of a deal. Just respond.”

“Okay I will.”

Shiro kept looking at him.

“What you mean like _now_?”

“Yes.”

The held each other’s stares for a few moments, before Keith sighed. “Alright, alright.”

Keith poised his thumbs over his phone, ready to respond.

“Uh, what do I say?”

“Oh my god, _Keith._ Just send whatever.”

“Alright! Jeez.” Keith went back to his phone and typed out a reply, which was basically his reaction to the text Lance sent him. He added an emoji for good measure and hit _send._

“There, happy? I sent a text.”

“Good, I expect to hear stories of you two hanging out, alright?”

“Fine, _Dad_.” Keith rolled his eyes at his friend’s antics.

“Damn right, _son_.” They paused for a moment before both bursting out in laughter.

Their laughter was interrupted but the sound of Keith’s phone buzzing, indicating he had recieved a text.

“Oh,” Keith remarked, “That was quick.”

“Well that’s a good thing.” Shiro replied, wiggling his eyebrows again. 

Keith gave him a deadpan stare and opened his phone, caught off guard by the text. Another blush worked its way up his cheeks and Shiro seemed to notice, because he leaned over and read the screen.

“Oh, I mean he sounded like the flirtatious type but u-” He was interrupted mid-sentence by Keith’s phone buzzing again. A few seconds later it buzzed twice in rapid succession. Keith was about glance at the screen when his phone buzzed one last time.

\--- 

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 4:32 pm|_

_i’M SORRY THAT W ASNT M E_

_IT WAS MY FR I EN D_

_PLS DONT BE WEIRDED OUT OM G_

_i s2g this gremlin hates me or somethgn_

_\---_

Keith giggled at the texts, imagining Lance’s panicked face as he tried to rectify the situation.

\---

_|Me (555-2601) 4:33 pm|_

_It’s alright dude. Tell them I said hi._

_\---_

Keith paused for a second, wondering if he should mention the fact that he and Shiro made up. His thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds before he decided that he wanted to tell Lance that in person. His phone vibrated in his hands again, catching him off guard. Shiro was peeking over Keith’s shoulder silently reading the exchange between the two boys.

\---

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 4:34 pm|_

_pidge and hunk both say hi_

_also they saw that pic of u i took the other day n hunk said he likes ur mullet_

_i am inclined 2 agree_

_\---_

“I don’t have a mullet!” Keith protested. “Why do people always say that?” Shiro instantly barked out a laugh, knowing Keith _hated_ it when people said he had a mullet.

He angrily texted him back. 

\---

_|Me (555-2610) 4:34 pm|_

_I do not have a mullet dude._

_Clearly you don't understand the artistry that is my hair._

_\---_

“Hey dude,” Shiro started, still fighting off giggles “business in the front party in the ba- _ack”_ The last bit of that sentence was muffled by Keith shoving a pillow into Shiro’s face.

“I DON’T HAVE A MULLET!” Keith retorted, attacking Shiro with the pillow, trying to make sure that he didn’t notice his blushing face because somehow he didn’t mind that Lance called his hair a mullet; or the fact that he said that he _liked_ it.

***

Kaori came home later that night to the sound of yelling and laughter before she even noticed that Keith’s shoes were still there.

She smiled, setting her bags down on the dining table; glad that she was right to have gotten an extra meal.

“Hey!” She called out, “I bought Chinese takeout; who wants some?”

“Keith’s still here!” Shiro yelled back, “Is there enough?”

“Of course!” She responded with a smile. “There always is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pidge is an annoying Dramatic lil gremlin but i love them so much (yes they are nonbinary :^) ) and hunk is his sweetheart self. shiro is classic best friend, always such a good guy. and yes, i gave shiro a hot older sister. i based her off of shiho yoshimura bc i have a big Gay crush on her. next chapter we meet lance's gigantic fam :^)))) hope you all enjoyed the chapter!


	3. injuries and families

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets the family, all does not go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT THIS MONSTER OF A CHAPTER IS 8K WORDS. but omg yay we finally get to meet Lance's family wooooo. Also don't hate me too much by the end kay?  
> also lance is the BIGGEST ANIME TRASH you can't convince me otherwise. 
> 
> ALSO EDIT: I changed the previous chapters from the month being September to August because I needed to set stuff up before their school year started. So yeah sorry if that confuses anyone

 

The last few days of August were still blistering hot, much to Keith’s disdain. He spent his last few days of freedom sweating in his apartment, air conditioning on full blast, either reading or playing video games and just generally being lazy. He justified this behaviour by going on runs every evening, when the sun was low enough that there was still light but also a cool breeze in the air. He hadn’t seen or spoken to Lance in almost a week, despite trying to go on runs close to the time that they met, but again was met with no luck. Keith was also way too awkward to simply text him to hang out, as he had no idea how to go about it. He still saw Shiro from time to time, but he and Allura were still in the lovey-dovey stage of their relationship and he didn’t want to be there when they started making out. He did pass a Samoyed that looked suspiciously like Luna once while rounding a corner, but both the dog and the girl walking it were long gone when Keith tried to catch up them. So he had officially given up hope on bumping into Lance and dealt with the fact the he would probably have to actually call him out to hang out, which was terrifying. It also didn’t help that there was a small voice in the back of Keith’s mind that said that Lance was purposely avoiding him.

He was out on his daily run, contemplating the ways in which one would ask someone to hang out without sounding like a totally loser when a thought struck him. Keith realized he had never actually been back to the spot where he met Lance, instead he took his usual route on the trail, hoping to bump into the two of them while they were on a walk. He sped up, mentally cursing himself for not thinking of that sooner, but also not getting himself too psyched lest he get disappointed again.

On the way to the spot looking over the creek, Keith realized just how out of the way it was, nestled a good ways into the woods and hid by several trees from anyone who passed by. There was a bit of an incline, and Keith slowed down to a walk as he approached the point. The nearer he got, the clearer the voices he heard up ahead become.

 _Not voices._ Keith realized. _Voice._

 _Lance’s voice._  

Lance was mumbling a song too quiet for Keith to hear as he and Luna watched as some ducks swam by. Lance sighed after a few moments.

“Well girl,” Lance said softly, “Looks like it’s a no-go again.”

Keith watched him slowly stand up, taking Luna’s leash in hand and wrapping it around his wrist. Keith was about to say something to let Lance know he was there, but was interrupted by Lance screaming bloody murder, flailing wildly.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHO THE FU-” He paused once he seemed to realize who it was, “ _Keith!_?” 

“Hi.” He tried to talk over the sound of Luna’s barking, but it was obvious she got a little spooked by Lance’s scream. “Didn’t mean to scare you like that, sorry.”

“Oh, no it’s okay” Lance replied, clutching his chest dramatically. “I love feeling like I’m in a horror movie. But seriously dude, or you some sort of ninja or something? I didn’t hear you at all.”

Keith laughed awkwardly. “I’ve been told I’m pretty quiet. Were you heading back? We could walk together, I just finished my run.”

Lance glanced at him, about to open his mouth.

“Uh-I mean if-if you want to that is.” Keith quickly cut in.

The other boy chucked, “Yeah sure, lead the way.” Lance gestured to the trail with his hand.

The two boys climbed down towards the trail, Luna trotting happily alongside them. Once they hit the pavement, they started walking back in the direction of their houses, but neither said anything for a while. Lance occasionally commented on a nice tree or flower he saw, but besides that he didn’t say much. Keith was surprised, expecting the other boy to have talked his ear off already. He wanted to say something, glancing over at Lance but was taken aback at how awkward the other boy seemed. He was looking anywhere other than at Keith, looking deep in thought. Keith noticed that Lance had put some distance between them, and his earlier fears of Lance only befriending him out of pity, and not actually wanting to be friend, came back.

Keith started internally freaking out a little, trying to figure out what to say. He tried thinking it through, realizing that maybe Lance was having an off day or something.

“Hey” Keith prompted, “Is everything okay?”

“Uh,” Lance glanced up at Keith, “yeah, I just um, didn’t know how to apologize to you.”

“Apologize?” Keith was genuinely confused. “About what?”

“I, um, called your hair a mullet-and I haven’t heard from you since so I -” Lance was interrupted by Keith bursting out in laughter.

“Y’know,” Keith said in between fits of laughter. “I’ve been going on runs every single day on this trail and I have never once seen you here. I thought maybe you were avoiding going here so you wouldn’t see me. I saw a dog that looked a lot like Luna a lot of times, but it was never you that was walking her so I wasn’t sure. What I’m trying to say is,” Keith said after finally calming down, “I thought _you_ were avoiding _me.”_  

Lance’s eyebrows went up in surprise.

“Today I thought that you might be at the spot where we met. So I went there and lo and behold. Also the mullet thing annoys me a little, but it doesn’t actually make me mad. I guess sarcasm doesn’t translate into text very well.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I thought I was the one that overreacted a lot.”

There was a beat of silence before Lance erupted into laughter as well. After that initial mishap the two boys fell into the easy rhythm of conversation, talking about whatever came to mind.

“Oh!” Keith suddenly remembered why he wanted to seek Lance out in the first place. “I apologized to Shiro. Your advice really helped out so, thanks for that.”

Lance beamed, “No problem! I’m glad it all worked out in the end.”

“Yeah, me too.” Keith smiled back.

Another thought popped into Keith’s head while they were walking back, “How come you were at the spot where we met?”

“Same reason you were, to run into you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I’ve been walking Luna pretty much every day since then. My sister Sam is pretty annoyed at me because she likes doing it.”

“What’s she like? Your sister I mean.”

“Small and annoying. Well I can’t really call her small anymore though; she’s almost as tall as me now.” Lance pouted at that. “She’s really perceptive though, she picks up on the smallest things. It’s kind of creepy to be honest.”

He looked thoughtful. “She’s really smart though, and we actually get along pretty well. But don’t tell her that.”

“My lips are sealed.”

Soon they reached a fork in the path, signalling their time to go their separate ways. They bid their farewells; Keith bent down and scratched Luna’s head, she responded by licking his face. They left each other laughing, each going home feeling light.

***

They saw each other again the next day. While Keith was out running with his headphones blasting his music he didn’t take notice of the giant white cloud running towards him.

 _“dasi run, run, run, nan meomchul suga eobse-_ AGH”  Luna pretty much attacked him, causing Keith to almost topple over, but he regained his balance the last second. She seemed happy to see him, jumping up and down, tail wagging back and forth rapidly.

“Hey girl” He said softly, “Where’s your dorky owner?”

Keith glanced up and noticed Lance jogging up to him, clearly out of breath. He doubled over to rest his hands on his knees.

“First of all,” Lance straightened up, still sounding out of breath, “I’m not a dork.”

“You heard that?”

“Of course I did, I have _exceptional_ hearing.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

They walked back together again until they reached the fork in the road again. After that, it became a daily thing; Keith and Lance would meet during the evening, with Keith going for a run and Lance out walking Luna. The two would walk back until they had part ways, chatting all the way.

(“Favourite colour?”

“Red.”

“Oh right you already said that. Mine’s blue.”)

(“ _Dude,_ Superman is definitely superior to Batman.”

“Okay, first of all Lance, you’re wrong. Second, one whiff of kryptonite and its goodbye!”

“Listen, Batman is all” He put on a gravelly voice “I’m so sad and angry and angsty because my parents are dead ehhhhh.”

“Well he’s obviously cooler. He doesn’t need superpowers, he’s a superhero because he made himself one though hard work. I can relate to him more.” _And for some other reasons, Keith thought to himself._

“Hmm I guess.”

“Plus, Superman wears his tidy-whities over his costume.” Keith said with a smirk.  

“Dude, that’s low.”)

(“Listen, dude how have you _never_ seen an episode of The X Files?”

“Because I haven’t had the chance?”

“Alright fair enough, but just know that Mulder and Scully are goals.”

“Mmm-hmm.”)

Keith learned a lot about Lance, how he talked animatedly with his hands; how he was sort of clumsy, often tripping up on rocks and twigs. He learned that he was just as obnoxious as he expected, but in an endearing way - if that was possible. Keith also couldn’t help but notice one day, looking right at Lance as he spoke, that his eyes were actually a blue-grey colour, and not brown like he first thought.

One day Lance showed up before Keith set out on his run in workout gear, saying that he would join Keith on his runs. Lance had to get back in shape before soccer season started, even though it was still pretty far away. Keith tried (and failed) to stop noticing at how nice Lance’s legs were. _Curse those soccer legs_ Keith thought, almost tripping on a twig. Luna trotted alongside the two boys as they jogged, trying to keep up with the two as they competed over who was faster. Keith learned very early on that Lance was very competitive, but he was the same, and the two pushed each other to do better. They would have ridiculous competitions during their runs, like who could run faster backwards and which one of them could keep up with Luna when she ran full speed. This went on for the remainder of the summer, drawing close to the new school year. They talked endlessly about mindless topics, usually what video games they were playing, or shows they were watching, and occasionally facts about themselves.

It was three days before school started when Lance finally challenged Keith to a proper race. Now that the two had been steadily going on runs for a solid two weeks, Lance felt like he was back in shape and could take Keith on.

The other boy happily accepted, confident in the fact that he would beat Lance easily. Sure, Lance was athletic, but Keith noticed that was he was steady, not fast. Keith was the opposite, what he lacked in stamina he made up for in speed.

They agreed on the parameters for the race; they would start at the fork in the road, go over the bridge and turn back once they hit the first bench. It would be a little over 500 meters, which was just enough for Keith not to get too tired.

They stood at their starting line, each preparing to start running. Lance was stretching dramatically, dressed like he came straight out of an 80s fitness video. Keith was trying very hard not to stare as Lance bent over, touching his toes. He was wearing a pastel blue t-shirt, with ridiculously short shorts to match. The dork even wore one of those terrible tacky sweatbands around his head and one of his wrists to complete the look.

Keith had only one question for him when he showed up to their meeting place: “ _Why?”_

“Psychological warfare. I’m hoping it’ll distract you.”

“Well you seem to be trying very hard, but I’m not gonna let that faze me.” Keith didn’t want to admit that it was sort of working.

“Where did you even dig that up anyway?”

“It was for a project in the ninth grade-don’t ask.”

“I won’t. Plus, I don’t need tricks to win.” He smirked.

“Oh you’re on, Mullet.” Lance teased. He had started the habit of calling Keith that lately, much to the others disdain. Keith never really told him to stop though, secretly enjoying the nickname.

He checked his shoes one more time to make sure they were tied up properly and straightened up. “You ready?”

“Oh, I was _born_ ready.”

“Alright, start the countdown.”

Their ‘countdown’ consisted of Lance throwing a stick as far as he could, and then starting once Luna reached it. They could have easily used their phones or something for an actual countdown, but this was more fun.

“Alright, here goes.” Lance held up a stick and waved it in from of Luna, egging her on. He lifted his hand up and swung, chucking the stick a fair distance. Luna chased after it excitedly, and the two boys got into their starting positions. Luna was slowly getting closer to the stick, and both boys tensed, ready to set off. She was approaching it quickly, only a few feet left before…

“Go!” Lance yelled once she reached it, he and Keith both launched into a full sprint.

They were pretty evenly matched for the first bit, both not running at their top speed to preserve stamina. The flat section of the trail was fine for Keith and he was able to pull ahead of Lance while still remaining at a steady pace. There was a slight incline later on that worried him a little, but he didn’t think about it too much. He glanced over at Lance, who despite looking like a ridiculous piece of blue cotton candy, seemed like he was having the time of his life. He was grinning wildly, and had a  determined glint in his eye that Keith recognized from their earlier competitions.

Luna had learned by now to run alongside them when they did, and followed them happily as they set off for their race.

They rounded a corner and there was only a little bit of flat ground before the hill, and Lance started to speed up. Keith glanced at him but maintained his pace, trying not to get too heated and speeding up to match Lance; knowing that if he did, he would burn out way too soon. They started to climb up the hill and Lance pulled ahead of Keith, obviously getting a little overconfident. Lance knew that Keith wasn’t good with hills, and took this as his opportunity to pull ahead and win, hoping to bait the other into speeding up. He could her the jingle of Luna’s collar and the sound of her feet, assured that she was keeping up.

They cleared the top of the hill and the ground evened out, with Lance speeding up a little more and Keith could hear as he went over the small bridge, his feet making noise as they hit the wooden planks. The shorter boy was starting to fall behind but he didn’t worry, he still had an ace up his sleeve.

They were approaching the point where they had to turn around and Keith started to slow down, conserving his energy for a sudden burst of speed.

Lance had already reached the bench and passed Keith on the way back, winking at him as he went. Keith smirked, nearing the bench and slowing down considerably, before turning around and unleashing a sudden burst of speed. He passed Lance and could hear the other boy let out a noise of surprise as he whizzed past him. Keith started laughing, having a lot of fun. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and his legs felt strained but he still laughed, relishing the moment.

“Hey no fair!” He could hear Lance protest behind him.

The light floating feeling Keith was experiencing was suddenly brought crashing down, and before Keith realized it - he was falling.

He felt his left foot hit a rock and falter, twisting inwardly. Keith let out a loud yelp as he started to fall, hearing a loud _crack_ and sharp pain slicing up his leg right after.  He tried putting his hands out to break his fall, but it was futile, as his arms gave out under the momentum. He could feel his elbows and knees scraping against the pavement, along with his face. He rolled over once before coming to a stop, and heard a muffled _Keith!_ behind him, but it sounded so far away. He was dazed from the shock for a few seconds, but was very abruptly snapped out of it when the shooting pain in his leg came back.

He rolled over to his side, and brought his leg up to hug it, wailing in pain.

“Agh- _fuck!”_ Keith could feel his ankle starting to swell, and knew that this wasn’t good.

He could see Lance pounding towards him, looking distraught; followed by what looked to be a cloud. _Why is there a cloud running at me_ was the first thought in Keith’s mind before he realized it was Luna, running up to Keith, barking wildly. Even she sounded worried. Lance fell to his knees as soon as he was close enough, fretting over Keith immediately, turning him around so he was looking up at him.

“Keith- _Keith,_ listen to me, can you hear me? How bad is it?” Lance's face hovered over him coated in worry. He was backlit by the evening sun, making him look like a worried pastel angel.

“Fuck, it hurts. Holy shit.” He was rocking back and forth, cradling his leg close. “Fuck, the season is gonna start soon oh my god I won’t be able to run coach is gonna kill me-“

“Keith! Now’s not the time for that. Can you stand?” His eyebrows were furrowed deeply, Keith had never seen him look so intense.

“Agh- _I don’t know_ ” He leaned forward, trying to get up. Lance held out a hand and he took it, sitting up properly.

“We need to get your ankle iced ASAP, I think my house is closer, we're gonna go there okay?”

Keith nodded, only half hearing what Lance was saying. The taller boy stood up and held out his hand again and Keith accepted it gratefully. Lance tugged and pulled Keith up until he was standing; the other boy placing his hand on his shoulder to balance himself.

“I’m-ungh, I’m _fine,”_ Keith insisted, trying to take a wobbly step, he stood for about three seconds before falling into Lance. Luckily he was caught before he could topple over again, leaning on him heavily. “I’m totally fine, really.”

“Say that to me when you’re not acting like a newborn deer walking for the first time.”

Keith sputtered, trying to retort, but all he could do was let out a groan as he accidentally put weight on his bad foot. “That’s what I thought.”

“Fine, at least let me lean on you while we walk back.”

“Of course Bambi, I’m not heartless.”

“And no obnoxious jokes.”

“But _Keith-”_

“Nope!”

Keith looped one arm around Lance’s shoulders, the other bracing itself on Lance’s hand on his waist, and limped forward an inch.

“Agh-wait! Wait a second Lance.” The pain was too much, Keith could put a little bit of weight on it, but he didn’t want to make it worse. “I can’t do this. How are we supposed to get to your house now?”

Lance looked at the ground, trying to come up with an idea. Eventually he gently removed Keith’s arm from his shoulder, and let him lean against a tree. He turned around, crouching on the ground with his back to Keith.

“Get on”

“What?!”

“I’ll carry you.”                                          

“What?! Lance, no!”

“Well it’s either a piggyback or bridal style, your choice."

Keith blushed wildly at that, thankful that the other boy was turned around. “Okay but first things first, take off that dumb headband.”

Lance chuckled, reaching up and tugging the brightly coloured sweatband off and looping it around his wrist along with the other.

He grumbled something about ‘having no choice’ and clamored on to Lance’s back, circling his arms around his neck as he went. He was suddenly struck with the worry of _wait what if I’m too heavy oh my god-_

But his concerns were unfounded, as Lance’s hands gripped the backs of his knees and he stood up in one fluid motion, like he wasn’t carrying another teenage boy on his back. “You okay there Bambi?”

“First Mullet, now Bambi, whats next?” Keith yelled directly into Lance’s ear.

“Hmm, Pouty, from the way you’re acting now.”

Keith tried (unsuccessfully) to kick Lance on the side, earning a laugh from the other boy. He could feel Lance shake slightly from laughter, and realized that the last time he piggybacked on someone was when he was in elementary school. Lance whistled, signalling for Luna to come follow them before they started walking back.

Keith was embarrassed. Incredibly embarrassed. For several reasons too. First, for not noticing the rock that made him trip, and second, for being so pathetic that Lance had to literally carry him back; and third, from getting so worked up from Lance giving him a _piggyback ride._

The other boy was reciting the story of how he broke his wrist once, in an attempt to help cheer Keith up, totally oblivious to the embarrassment he felt. “So this one time I was at the water park with my siblings…” 

 _Well,_ Keith thought _since I’m already in this situation, it can’t hurt to take advantage of it a little._ And with that he buried his face into Lance’s shoulder, hoping _praying_ there wasn’t anyone around to see him in this state. Lance didn’t seem to mind.

“…the slide was so big and my brothers dared me to go down it backwards when the lifeguards weren’t looking…”

The first thing he realized almost immediately was that Lance smelled nice. Like really nice. Was that some sort of flower? Keith couldn’t tell.

“…who wouldn’t say yes? I was an obnoxious thirteen year old it was like, peak time for dumb shit. Anyways Sadie – my other sister - found out and told our older sister, and she’s basically the one in charge of us. Needless to say she was furious…”

The second thing he realized was that despite his skinny frame and loose clothes, Lance had a surprising amount of muscle. It was obvious he was quite strong, considering he was an athlete himself. Keith tried to ignore the sensation of Lance’s strong hands on the backs of his thighs, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. It also didn’t help that Lance was wearing that _ridiculous_ outfit, and that his shorts were hiking up just the slightest.

“…before she found out! I waited for my brother to distract the lifeguard and went down the slide backwards with such a smug look on my face…” Lance chuckled and Keith could feel the vibrations from that again. It was a weirdly pleasant feeling, Keith noted, feeling someone else’s laughter against you.

The third thing that Keith noticed was that Lance’s entire body would light up at the mention of his family. It was no secret he loved them, but it was in moments like these, where we was talking about them so animatedly, that you could see just how much he cared for them.

“…wrist against the side of the slide bellyflopped!” Lance paused to adjust Keith’s position on his back, hiking him a little higher, “My mom saw the whole thing and shrieked, demanding we call an ambulance. It was an eventful day to say the least.”

“ _That’s_ how you broke your wrist?”

“Yep. Hairline fracture. I got a cool cast and everything. So many people signed it. I’ll show you the scar later.”

That prompted another thought in Keith’s head. Surely Lance was popular right? Sure he was a little loud and out there, but he was generally likeable. Keith couldn’t help but wonder. What was he like at school? What were his friends like-besides from what Lance had told him. How were his grades? Keith realized that there was a great deal he didn’t know about Lance. But he was about to learn about a really important aspect of his life. His family.

Keith still had his head buried in Lance’s shoulder, and opened one eye to see where they were. They were in a neighbourhood that Keith didn’t recognize, and ventured to guess that they were nearing Lance’s house.

Keith could soon feel the sensation of Lance climbing up some steps, signalling that they had reached his house.

“The Piggyback Express has reached its destination, all passengers please disembark.” Lance said in an exaggerated voice as he gently put Keith down, helping him stay steady as he opened the door. They walked into foyer with Luna trotting in behind them, and the first thing Keith was surprised by was the sheer number of shoes. There were two shoe racks filled with sneakers, boots, flats, heels and several styles Keith didn’t know the name of. There were also as several different pairs littered across the floor. There were various toys, tiny action figures and colorful pieces of plastic on the stairs leading down to what was probably the basement. There were several different smells and noises all coming from the house, making it seem very lively.  

As Keith gingerly slipped off his sneakers, he could hear the sound of kids laughing, soon followed by the pitter-patter of small feet.

“Ammi! I’m home!” Lance called out, signalling his return. “And I brought-” He was cut off suddenly by a small toddler waddling her way towards him, an exasperated looking girl of about thirteen chasing after her. “Stop running off like that Ayesha!” The older girl scolded the toddler, but she wasn’t interested, obviously more fixated by the two people that came in through the door.

“Lunaaaaa!” The baby shrieked, obviously very excited to see the dog. Lance swooped down and picked her up easily, swinging her around, earning a fit of giggles from her, “Let me down Chachu!” She protested. “I wanna pet the doggy!” Lance would put her close to the ground before teasingly pulling her up again, causing her to flail. “I’ll put you down if you promise not to feed her any weird candy okay?”

She pouted, but nodded her head. He put her down and she immediately went to go hug Luna; she was about as big as the dog herself. Luna barked happily, waving her tail and licking Ayesha in the face. He handed Luna’s leash to what Keith could only guess was his younger sister. She peered at him, looking obviously surprised by his current state, covered in cuts and bruises. She stood there for a second, looking between Lance and Keith. Tilting her head and raising her eyebrows, she asked a silent question: _who?_  

“Oh right, Sadie,” He gestured to the girl, “This is my friend Keith. Keith, this is my sister Sadie and my niece Ayesha.” At the mention of her name the toddler perked up, “Hello!” She waved excitedly from next to Luna. Keith smiled sheepishly and waved back. He never knew what to do with small kids.

Looking at them now Keith could see the resemblance between Lance and his younger sister. His sister was thin like him, and had the same hooked nose. Her thick hair was parted off to the side, coming down to her shoulders in a blunt bob cut. Her eyes were much bigger than Lance’s, and were much darker too, not the same blue-grey colour that her brother had.

Lance turned to his sister, “Hey, is Bhaijan here right now?” His sister shook her head. “Is he coming back later?” She nodded. “Alright, well Keith hurt his leg so I’m gonna patch it up.” His sister nodded and picked Ayesha up, tugging Luna’s leash as they walked away, seemingly satisfied with the answer. Ayesha looked over her shoulder and kept waving, “Bye-bye!” Keith waved back.

“Well she’s…excited?”

“What, oh yeah.” Lance smiled fondly. “She’s also very spoiled. Don’t blame us though, she’s pretty precious.” Keith nodded in agreement.

“Your sister doesn’t talk much though.”

“Yeah she’s just shy around new people. Once she gets comfortable around you though, she’s a completely different person.” Lance laughed a little.

“Reminds me of myself.” Keith mumbled, not quite loud enough for Lance to hear. He limped over to Lance, slinging his arm around his shoulder. Luckily the pain in his foot had gone down a little, but it not enough that he could walk unassisted. They hobbled towards the kitchen, where the smell of delicious food was wafting and old timey music in a language Keith didn’t understand was being played.

They stepped into the entrance of the kitchen, were a stout woman was cooking, singing along to the music. She had a her hair tied up into a neat bun at the back of her head and was wearing what looked to Keith like a long tunic and pants made of cotton, a scarf thrown over her shoulder. He could hear the jingle of her bangles as she cooked, adding spices and chopping vegetables as she went. It seems that she hadn’t heard them come in, considering she didn’t acknowledge them at all. Lance separated from Keith and let him lean against the wall.

“Ammi.” Lance tried again. The woman startled, turning around to look at them. Again, Keith could see the resemblance between Lance and his mother, they had the same upturned mouth, but on his mother it looked less mischievous and more open, giving her a calm, serene look. “Oh.” She started, “I didn’t hear you come in baita.” She had a soft lilt to her voice, not quite an accent; but you could tell she spoke more languages than one.

“Yeah we just got back a while ago.” He stepped past her and grabbed a few cookies from a jar, handing one to Keith who took it gratefully. Lance’s mother looked at him curiously and then with worry when she registered his injured state.

“ _Yeh kaun hai? Isko kya hogya?”_ She asked him softly. _Who is this? What happened to him?_

“ _Mera dost. Woh girgya aur iskay pair may chot lagayi” My friend. He fell and he hurt his foot._

They conversed like that for a while, with Lance occasionally switching between two languages with ease. She gestured to his outfit, obviously criticizing it, earning a laugh from her son. Keith was mostly lost, but from what he could tell he was explaining how he hurt his leg to his mom. He picked up his names a couple of times in their conversation. Keith noticed that Lance sounded more playful in his native tongue, more mischievous if that was possible. But it was also softer, more rhythmic, and Keith decided he liked the way it sounded.

He glanced around, taking in the interior of Lance’s home. There were pictures _everywhere._ Of babies, small kids, adults, babies with adults. Kids at sports games, music recitals and family parties.

Peeking into the living room Keith spotted a huge family portrait above the fireplace. He recognized Lance, despite him being several years younger in the photo; surrounded by his siblings and parents. He was struck by how similar Lance and his father looked, and how he also had the same color eyes that Lance did. It seems he was the only one that inherited that trait, because the rest of his siblings appeared to have brown eyes in the photo. Lance and his father had basically the same face, all Lance was missing was a mustache.

Keith squinted at the mantle above the fireplace, not being able to see much from his place in the kitchen doorway but it seemed there were more pictures of their family, except they all had something in common, they featured Lance’s father.

 _“Is this the same friend you go out and see every day? You sure seem to like him.”_ Lance’s mother said to him in their native tongue with a mischievous smile, and Keith was stricken by how similar they looked.

 _“Ammi!”_ Lance cried out in protest.

Keith turned his head back around and looked in between them in confusion, obviously missing something.

His mother nodded in understanding and turned to Keith. He straightened up and held out his hand, “Um, I’m Keith, it’s nice to meet you.” He paused “Ma’am.” He added for good measure.

Instead of shaking his hand she simply put hers a top his head, despite being considerably shorter. Keith leaned forward automatically. Her hand was warm, and Keith felt a weird feeling in his chest as she looked at him fondly. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

She retracted her hand and Keith straightened up, still feeling warm. “It’s always nice meeting new friends of Lance.” Lance’s face went red at that, clearly embarrassed. He looked away.

She looked at him with her brows furrowed, “Are you alright? You’re not too hurt are you?”

“Uh no. Ma’am. It’s not too bad just need a couple of bandages and some ice.”

She nodded, heading over to the freezer, tugging it open and pulling out an ice pack. She handed it to Lance and said something to him, probably to take care of Keith.

They limped up the stairs at a painstakingly slow pace, going up one step a minute. They finally made it to the top after what felt like forever, and Keith glanced around. There was a long hallway, dotted with five doors. The one at the end of the hall was a bathroom from what Keith could make out, and the others were probably bedrooms.

Lance led him into the bathroom, which was kind of cramped. There was a long counter opposite to the tub, the toilet right next to it. Keith moved to go sit down on the edge of the bathtub when he suddenly felt hands around his waist, swiftly hoisting him up onto the counter. He felt a jolt travel up his spine from the places where Lance’s hands graced his bare skin. The taller boy immediately dropped down to drape the ice pack on Keith’s ankle, hoping to ease some of the swelling. Keith was too startled to do anything, his hands freezing in mid-air, surprised at how easily Lance did that. He could feel his face get hot and his ears start to burn, the lingering feeling of Lance’s hands on his waist not helping with his embarrassment.

Lance didn’t notice at all, he was too busy rummaging the bathroom cabinet. Eventually he pulled out several supplies, including bandages, gauze, disinfectant and a gel to help with the swelling some more. He set all the materials on the counter and set to work.

He first used the disinfectant spray to clean off Keith’s wounds and get rid of some of the dried blood. Keith hissed when the spray touched his skin. “Sorry, s’gonna sting a lil” Lance mumbled, totally focused on what he was doing. He cleaned up both of his elbows, applying bandages to each. He then moved onto Keith’s knees and the smaller boy tensed when Lance’s hands brushed his thighs. Keith’s right knee needed to be wrapped in gauze, the wound too big for just a bandage.

Keith felt awkward sitting there in silence so he figured he would strike up a conversation, “So you said you had five siblings right? Do they all live with you?” 

“Hm? Oh, most of them do but not all. My oldest brother Ike lives with his family about ten minutes away from here.”

“Oh, is your niece his daughter?”

“Yep. Everyone else lives here. Although my eldest sister Rosie practically lives at her university, or with her fiancé.”

“She’s getting married?”

“Yep, not for a while though. And besides that everyone else lives here, me, Ammi, Sam, Sadie and Chintu.”

“You have a sibling named Chintu?”

“Nah, that’s just what we call him, he hates it.” Lance said with a grin. 

He laughed and moved down Keith’s ankle, temporarily taking the ice pack off to apply the gel and massaging it into his skin. Keith flinched when Lance applied pressure to the spot underneath the bone, huffing out a groan.

“Hmm.” Lance looked contemplative. He took his hands and gently applied pressure to various parts of Keith’s ankle, gauging his reactions. He then proceeded to rotate the foot, stopping when Keith let out a noise of pain.

“It doesn’t seem like its broken, probably just sprained. You definitely stretched a ligament though.”

“Oh. That hopefully won’t take too long to heal. Probably a week or two?” He was trying to remain hopeful, he didn’t want to miss out on the season.

“Still, you should go to a doctor.” Lance said sternly.

“Yeah, I will.” The other boy assured.  

Lance finished by taking the ace bandages and carefully wrapping Keith’s ankle, making sure it wasn’t too tight. He stood up, suddenly face to face with Keith.

“Oh.” Lance paused in the middle of putting the first aid supplies away. “Is that blood?” He reached up and gently brushed Keith’s hair aside, revealing a small cut right next to his eyebrow. He took out a bandage and carefully, gently, applied it to Keith’s face.

 _He’s so close. Why is he so close._ Keith tried his hardest not to stare, but it was hard. With a start, he realized that Lance had the slightest dusting of freckles across his nose, so faint they were barely there.

They two suddenly made eye contact, their faces inches apart from each other’s. They both stayed like that for a few moments, neither daring to move an inch or breathe. There was a considerable amount of tension in the air, and with each passing second Keith heart beat a little faster.

A sudden knock on the bathroom door startled them both out of their trance, causing them to jump, bumping their heads in the process.

“Ow, shit.” Lance whispered, rubbing the spot where he bumped into Keith.

“I need to use the bathroom!” He heard a high pitched voice say from the other side.

“Oh sorry Chintu.” He opened the door to reveal a small boy, a little plump with a mop of messy dark hair. He rubbed his eyes, looking like he had just woken up from a nap. The boy had to crane his neck up to look Lance in the face. “About time.” He said sleepily.

Keith noticed something move in the corner of his eyes, and looked up past the boy to see a girl turn to walk down the stairs. _Probably another sister_ Keith thought. Lance ruffled his brother’s messy hair, who only now seemed to notice Keith sitting on the counter.

“Bhaiya,” He started, pointing to Keith “Is it just me or do you also see a boy sitting on the bathroom counter?”

“Oh, right. This is my friend Keith, Keith this is-“

“You can do that later I really need to pee!”

“Alright, alright!” Lance scuttled out the door and Keith had little time to wonder what Lance’s little brother called him before he was ushered out by an annoyed eleven year old. He limped after Lance, gently sliding off the counter to avoid putting too much pressure on his foot.

“Sorry about that, he gets a little grumpy right after he wakes up from a nap. How’s your foot?” He motioned to Keith’s newly wrapped up foot once they were in the hallway.

“It’s okay, I should probably be getting back now actually.” Keith replied, feeling a little awkward.

“What? No, you’re staying for dinner. My mom wants you to stay.”

“I can’t do that, I don’t want to impose-”

“You aren’t imposing Keith.” Lance cut in quickly. “Listen my mom will physically hold you back from leaving. Don’t laugh dude, she may be small but she’s strong. Pidge is still a little scarred.”

Keith still felt awkward. So far he had only met a handful of Lance’s family members. Had he told them about him? Did they know who he was? It sounded like Lance’s other friends fit in just fine, but he couldn’t help be worried. Even if they were Lance’s family, they were new people and he didn’t know how to act.

“Keith,” Lance put his hand on the other boy’s shoulder. “Stop thinking too much, it’s _okay_. Plus my mom said she was worried that you were too skinny, she wants to feed you. It’ a mom thing, you get it.”

 _Actually no I don’t._ Keith said in his head, he nodded anyway.

They moved over to Lance’s room, the taller boy pausing before they went in. “Um, listen it might be a little messy and by a little I mean like really messy so-”

“Lance. It’s fine.”

“Yeah, alright ok.” He pushed open the door to his bedroom, Keith stepped in a surveyed his surroundings, overwhelmed at the sheer amount of _stuff_ Lance had in his room.

The first thing that struck him was the fact that there were clothes all over the floor and shoved into a pile on the corner of Lance’s bed; which itself was pushed up against the wall on the far end of the room. There were posters plastered everywhere of various TV shows and anime, as well as several posers of aliens and one with a UFO with the words I WANT TO BELIEVE in bold white font across the bottom. There was also a mess of family photos, several pictures of Lance with his soccer teams mixed in.

There was a small wooden desk that housed Lance’s computer, several notebooks, a desk lamp and an assortment of pens and pencils in colourful holders.

The closet on the other side of the room was open, revealing a giant mess of clothes that were both hanging and littered on the floor, along with a varying assortment of boxes.

There was another small table in the middle of Keith’s room, the type that were suited for people sitting on the floor, and cushions littered about.

There was one corner of the room however, right above Lance’s head when he slept, that was dedicated to his soccer achievements. Several trophies, medals and ribbons were placed and strung on the shelves that looked like they were added in for the sole purpose of displaying them. There was also a navy blue jersey with the word SIDDIQUI and the number 26 in bold white lettering hanging above the shelf. 

Keith stepped towards it to get a better look. _DISTRICT CHAMPIONS ’09, RUNNER’S UP UNDER 18 TEAM, MVP 2013 – LANCE SIDDIQUI_ were some of the labels on the awards.

Lance flopped down on to his bed, Keith opting to sit in his office chair.

“Are all those from The X Files?” Keith asked, pointing to the several sci fi posters on the walls.

“Yep!”

“That one is from that anime with the kids piloting the robots right? The one where the main character cries a lot?” Keith pointed to a poster with a giant purple robot and several teenagers in skin tight outfits standing in front of it.

“If you’re talking about the masterpiece that is Neon Genesis Evangelion then yes, it is.” Lance replied haughtily.

“So what language was that?”

“Hm?”

“That you were speaking with your mom, I didn’t recognize it.”

“Oh, that was Urdu. Mine isn’t the best though, my cousins used to tease me for it all the time.”

“Oh.” Keith nodded. But that meant, wait-

“Wait. Where are you from? Like I mean, what is your background?”

Lance eyed him curiously, “Pakistan.” He said after a beat.

“Wait, seriously?” 

“Uh, yeah.” Lance responded like it was obvious.

“Huh, I guess I never thought about it ‘cause your name is Lance - sorry, if that offended you or something.” He quickly cut in.

Lance chuckled, “It’s okay, plus, my real name technically isn’t Lance.”

“It isn’t!?” Keith was surprised to say the least. “Then what is it?”

Lance looked at him with a smirk. “It’s a secret” Holding a finger to his lips and winking.

“You’re the worst.” Keith couldn't help but feel a ping of sadness at that, but it seemed like there were things Lance wasn't ready to tell him yet. 

Keith spun around in the chair, opting to ignore Lance and instead checking out the various pictures on his desk. There was one of Lance at probably five or six years old, sitting on his dad’s shoulders.

“This is a nice photo.” Keith said motioning to it.

Lance nodded, suddenly looking distracted.

“I haven’t met him yet, will he be back for dinner?” He glanced back at Lance. 

Lance tensed slightly, Keith could see a cloud fall over his face. He looked up at Keith, a sad smile on his face.

“He passed away three years ago.”

Keith’s eyes went wide, a sudden realization coming to him. The picture on Lance’s phone, the outdated family photo over the fireplace, and the mantle full of photos featuring him. He could almost hear an audible _click_ in his brain.

“I-I didn’t mean to, _shit_ -I mean I also-”

 Suddenly there was a knock on the door, interrupting Keith.

Lance got up to answer it after a brief pause, not looking at Keith as he went. He let out a yelp as soon as he opened the door, suddenly disappearing behind it. Keith startled and looked over to see Lance flailing, caught in a headlock by a taller man. He looked like he was enjoying antagonizing Lance and had the beginnings of a beard, short clean cut hair and wearing a suit looking very proper - a stark contrast to how he was acting at the moment.

“Bhaijan stop!”

“Nope! I haven’t seen your dumb face in over a month, you’re never home when I come to visit. Why huh? Got yourself a significant other you don’t want to tell me about?”

“What?! No! Stop embarrassing me, my friend is here!”

It was then that Lance’s older brother seemed to notice Keith, sitting wide eyed in surprise on Lance’s office chair. He paused, still holding Lance captive in a headlock. He looked at him unfazed, casually taking an arm from around Lance’s neck to wave. “Yo. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” His grip slackened enough for Lance to wriggle out of his hold, gently smacking his brother on the arm once he was free.

“I’m Keith.” He moved to stand up, grimacing a little and limping over, holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you uh… _Bhaijan_?”

Lance and his brother both looked at each other for a beat before bursting out into laughter, the two of them doubling over and clutching their stomachs.

“Um,” Keith tried to say over their laughter. “Am I missing something?”

Lance calmed down a little but his brother was still in between fits of laughter, “That’s not is name dude. ‘Bhaijan’ means older brother in Urdu.”

“Oh.” Keith blushed a little in embarrassment.

His brother wiped off a stray tear from the corner of his eye, taking Keith’s still outstretched hand “I’m Ike, it’s nice to meet you.” Keith accepted it sheepishly. Ike was several inches taller than Lance, and they didn’t look very similar but he could see the same playful glint in his eye that the other members of their family had. It was hard to believe this guy was a dad - _definitely looks like one though_ , Keith noted.

“Where’s Bhabhi?” Lane asked

“Downstairs dealing with Ayesha, she was being fussy.” He  replied. Ike gave Keith a once over, eyeing his various bandages. _“Did you become friends with a delinquent Lance?”_ He mumbled in Urdu.

Lance rolled his eyes at his brother. _“We went on a run, he fell and got injured.”_

His brother clapped him on the back, “Just checking bro. I’ll leave you two be then, see you at dinner.” He waved them goodbye and went back downstairs. The two boys sat back down.

A thought suddenly popped into Keith’s head and he tried to change the topic to avoid talking about that awkward moment earlier, “So if your real name isn’t Lance what about your siblings?”

“Hm?”

“Like, is Ike your brother’s actual name?”

“Well it’s a shortened version. His name is actually Iqbal.”

“Oh. And Sam?”

“Sameera.”

“Rosie?”

“Raazia. And before you ask Sadie’s name is Sadia. And Chintu’s name is Farhan.”

“That’s a jump.”

“Yeah he just goes by Farhan, Chintu is what we call him to annoy him.”

“Why do all of you go by names that are uh-”

“Anglicized?” Lance finished his sentence for him. His face looked sad. 

“Well I was gonna use the term ‘whiteified’ but yeah.”

“It’s a bit of a long story. But it’s kind of because of me.”

“What do you mean?”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck and gave another sad smile. “That’s a story for another time.”

Keith didn’t pry any further, the look on Lance’s face was enough to persuade him not to. Lance glanced at the clock on his bedside table, “There’s still some time before dinner. Do want some snacks?”

“Uh sure.”

Lance nodded and left the room to go downstairs; leaving Keith to feel terrible by himself in the room. He had obviously hit a nerve and brought up something painful that Lance didn’t want to talk about. _Again._ Keith felt like shit.

He heard the door creak open, signalling Lance’s return. Or so he thought - as he looked up he saw someone who was basically the female version of Lance, except for the eyes, walk in. She was an inch or two shorter, with long hair that went from dark brown to a reddish colour at the tips. She stepped in and closed the door behind her, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. She looked right at Keith, as if sizing him up. He could only guess that this was the infamous Sam, Lance’s younger sister that was only a year apart from him. He had told him that they had grown up basically like twins, and confided everything in each other . She probably had heard many stories about Keith, unlike his other siblings.

Keith felt like he was being interrogated, even though the girl hadn’t said anything.  Her face was neutral but still pretty intimidating, her eyes hard. Keith opened his mouth to introduce himself, but she held her hand up, signalling him to stop.

“Keith.” She said abruptly. “Do you have a crush on my brother?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowlanceisdesiohmygodwhowoulveguessedholyshitomgee  
> also sorry for that cliffhanger the chapter would've gone on for much longer and i dont have it in me to write the rest rn ;---; but i hoped you guys liked it!  
> my urdu sucks by the way i was literally writing out how i pronounce the words lolol bc i cant type in urdu so i'm like you know what this'll do.  
> AND YES KEITH LISTENS TO ANGSTY KPOP. HE IS BTS' BIGGEST FAN.  
> also fun fact, my sister calls me chintu.  
> i hated it but it grew on me.  
> im half asleep when posting this so if there are any errors pls let me know i'll go back and edit them  
> deuces yall


	4. psychic sisters and spicy dinners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Keith learns that Sam is terrifying and how to eat with roti.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all here is the next chapter! Dinner with the family yay! Also sorry for the delay, uni has just started and I'm super busy ;-; the updates will probably be much less frequent from now on, like once or twice a month? Honestly I never expected this to be more than like 3 chapters but now I got all these ideas so stay tuned :^)  
> also i am half asleep posting this so if there are grammatical errors i am sorry pls be nice i am a sleep deprived university student

In any other situation Keith would’ve screamed. Yelled out an indignant _no!_ and bolted out the door, never to revisit the awkward mortified feeling he was experiencing at this moment. He felt his entire body freeze, the blood in his veins halting to a stop and going icy cold. He felt like he was going to pass out, or puke, or _both._ The brief notion that she was joking, playing a prank on him like her brother loves to do weighed in Keith’s mind. It seemed a likely possibility from what Lance had told him about her.

But something about Sam’s face, her pursed lips, those serious eyes that bore into Keith, and the underlying concern barely concealed in her face, stopped Keith from reacting harshly. There was no humour, no joking atmosphere. She didn’t suddenly burst out in to laughter with a sly _gotcha!_ Instead she just stared at him, unwavering. He stared back at her and he could see her eyes flickering ever so slightly, searching Keith’s face for an answer.

They sat there for a few moments, never breaking eye contact. Lance’s description of his sister flashed in his head, _she’s really good at picking things up, and honestly it’s kind of creepy sometimes._

How had this girl managed to pick up on something Keith hadn’t even realized was there until this moment?

He took a deep breath, carefully considering his answer, thinking it through. Honesty was the best policy at the moment.

“I don’t know.” He admitted.

 _You don’t know?_ Was what her face seemed to say, eyebrows raising slightly but still maintaining her stoic composure.

“I just – I met Lance under weird circumstances, as you probably already know. I was-” He paused, searching for the right word “- _vulnerable_ and he helped me. He’s also the first friend I’ve made in a very long time that I’d like to keep and-” He paused again, trying to get his thoughts in order. “-and there is some part of me that thinks the only reason that I’m still hanging around with him is because he’s some sort of filler for Shiro which he’s _not_ and I just-” He sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. “I just need time to figure it out. Shiro’s like my brother but the relationship that I have with Lance is different. I know that I care for him I just don’t know if it’s as a crush or a friend, and I don’t want to think it’s the former now and regret it later. I don’t want him to just be some sort of rebound friend. He deserves better than that. I haven’t even known him that long but I know that much is true.” He sighed again, feeling even more exhausted if that was possible. Baring your soul to your friend’s younger sister whom you had just met would do that to you.

Sam never once stopped staring at him, probably gauging his reactions throughout that little spiel. Finally she nodded once, seeming satisfied. “Alright.”

She smiled then, looking an awful lot like her brother. “I’m Sam by the way.”

Keith huffed out a dry laugh, “Yeah, I figured.”

She snickered at that, seeming happy by Keith’s response. He ran a hand down his face, and was surprised to find sweat coating his forehead. “That was one heck of a way to make a first impression.” He mumbled, turning to her. “Has anyone ever told you you’re terrifying?”

“All the time.” She said with a confident smirk. God, she really was the girl version of Lance.

“How did you know?” Keith asked, immensely curious. He suddenly remembered the girl that went down the stairs when they opened the bathroom door, realizing that she must have saw the two boys and jumped to conclusions. But that couldn’t have been the only reason, right?

“I had a hunch. He talks about you a lot. It sounds like he really enjoys being around you and from the way he describes it, you don’t mind too much either. I didn’t get it at first, why he hung out with you so much, but seeing you two together made it really obvious.”

“Plus,” She continued, a sly grin slowly spreading on her face, “It looked like you were really enjoying that piggyback ride.”

Keith sputtered, obviously taken off guard. Sam cackled at his reaction, enjoying it greatly.

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”  

She turned on her heel, ready to leave before pausing. “Hey Keith.”

“Yeah.”

“See you around.” She walked through the door, shutting it softly behind her. Keith let out a breath and slumped in the chair. That last sentence made it seem like he got her seal of approval, indicating it was okay with her if he came back. This helped lessen some of his anxiety, he wouldn’t know what to do if Lance’s family didn’t like him. Especially Sam, she was the closest to Lance. Of all the family pictures he saw, the two of them seemed inseparable.

He looked up at Lance’s ceiling, trying to digest the fact that _yes_ , that just happened. It seems like Lance wasn’t joking about her being perceptive, she must have picked up on something, but what?

Keith could hear the sound of the stairs creaking, and soon Lance walked through the door, a bag of chips in one hand and two bottles of soda in the other.

“Hey I hope you like barbeque because that’s all we have-” He paused when he saw Keith. “Hey are you okay dude? You look pale, do you need some painkillers?”

“What? Oh, no I’m fine.” Keith tried to sound convincing but he had the sinking suspicion he failed.

Lance eyed him curiously. “So what did Sam want? I saw her leaving the room.”

Keith paused briefly in the middle of twisting his soda cap open, “Nothing.” Trying again to sound nonchalant, “She was just saying hi.”  It wasn’t a _total_ lie, Keith thought. He faced away from Lance, hastily taking a sip of soda.

Lance didn’t look like he believed him, but thankfully didn’t press the matter. He tugged open the bag of chips, handing them to Keith once they were open. Keith grabbed a handful, but a weight in his chest made it difficult for him to eat.

“Sorry about earlier,” He said quietly. “About bringing up that stuff that upset you I-”

Lance placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s alright, you didn’t know. I didn’t exactly tell you either but saying my dad died isn’t something you mention to someone you just met. It was bound to happen eventually.” There it was again, that sad smile. Keith was starting to hate it. “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”

Keith nodded, grateful for the distraction.

They sat there for a few moments in silence as Lance set his computer up on the table in front of them. Keith stared at his back and figured since Lance had told him something important about himself, it was only fair he did the same. He took in a deep breath, trying to figure out the most succinct way to say it. There was only really one option here.

“Hey Lance.” Keith prompted, ever so softly.

“Yeah?”  He responded absentmindedly, scrolling through the library of action movies on Netflix.

“I need to tell you something.”

“Go ahead.” He was trying to decide between watching _Rush Hour_ or one of the James Bond movies.

Keith took a deep breath. “I just wanted to let you know that, I – I don’t have a family. I’m an orphan.” He could see Lance freeze, his hands pausing mid-air above his keyboard. He could see him turn his head slightly to the side, obviously trying to figure out what to say.

“It’s not a big deal though. You don’t have to worry about it or feel sad. _I don’t_.” He let out an awkward huff. “I just thought that since you told me something important it was only fair I did the same – not that I owe you or you owe me every single detail of our lives of course not its just- ” Keith could feeling himself shrinking a little. “-you’re my friend now so I figured I should give you a heads up. It’s better than you asking me about them and I have to awkwardly explain.” Keith could feel his heart pound, he had never felt embarrassed or anxious telling people about this before, but it was different with Lance. He cared about his reaction.

The other boy turned around slowly, but didn’t look at Keith. His brows were furrowed.

“Do you…live with anyone?”

Keith was taken aback by his answer. He expected an _I’m sorry_ or _how terrible_ , but Lance didn’t show him any pity - just concern.

“Alone. I moved out of foster care once I turned eighteen.”

“You never had a family that….?” He paused, unsure if he should finish and looking like he instantly regretted what he said.  

Keith chuckled. “Nah, I was a bit of a problem child.”

“Do you eat enough? While living alone I mean.”

Now _that_ was a first. He hadn’t heard that from anyone; asides from maybe Kaori.

“Yeah, I know how to cook. Plus Kaori – she’s Shiro’s sister by the way – insists on shoving food at me. So yeah, I eat.”

“Okay that’s good,” He gave a tiny smile. “Otherwise you’re always welcome here, my mom makes some mean biryani.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh my god.” Lance looked at him, mortified. “You’re not joking.” Lance suddenly looked very serious, staring at Keith with intense eyes. “You have much to learn, young padawan.” He said, putting on an old man voice and dramatically gesturing with his hands.

Keith let out a much louder laugh than anticipated, the tension and stress from earlier finally dissolving a little.

“Wait if you’re eighteen already but only in your last year of high school-” Lance realized where his thought process was going but stopped, looking a little guilty.

“It’s okay. But yeah, I started school a year later than everyone else. Apparently I had parents but they passed away, at least that’s what they told me. No one could find out if I had family back in Korea, so there was a lot of shuffling and paperwork to do before I started school. So that’s why I started late.” He didn’t mean to reveal so much, the only other person who knew was Shiro. But Keith could already feel like he could trust Lance.

“O-oh. So there’s a possibility you still have family there?”

“Yeah, maybe. I’ve been thinking about maybe going to find them or something, but I would have to wait a bit for that. The only thing I have to go on is my Korean name.”

“Oh, you have a Korean name? What is it if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Keith knew it was probably a dick move to say that, but he was curious.

Lance’s eyebrows went up. “Touché. I guess we’ll both have to wait then.” Lance smirked, but he looked a little uncomfortable.

“Does this mean you speak Korean?” He said, trying to change the topic.

“Uh, a little. Apparently I spoke it when I was younger but I forgot most of it. I’ve been teaching myself it again though.” He looked away, embarrassed. “This is gonna sound dumb but it’s a lot of the reason I listen to k-pop so much, it helps and it’s nice to listen to it and actually understand what they’re saying.”

“That’s not dumb it’s pretty cool. I can speak Urdu but I can’t read or write for shit.”

“Yeah, well at least you’ve been able to keep it up and speak it with your family. I bet it’s nice when you have parties with your extended family.”

“Yeah it is fun. If you ever want to join in though, be our guest. My mom loves it when we bring friends to family parties.”

“Are you sure? I mean I don’t want to-“

“If you’re gonna say intrude or something like that don’t worry, Pidge and Hunk have already been to a few. One more friend couldn’t hurt.”

Keith smiled nervously. “I’d um – I’d like that.”

Lance beamed, “Great! Consider yourself invited to the next family party, whenever that may be. Ramadan is coming up so it’ll probably be around then.”

“That’s the month where you guys fast right? I remember being told about it in school.”

“Yep! It sucks when it’s in the summer though, nineteen hours of fasting is brutal.”

“Ouch. I can imagine. I don’t know much about holidays in Korea. I’ve been trying to read up on Korean culture though. Did you know that in Korea I’m technically twenty?”

“What? How does that work?”

Keith tried to explain to Lance how the Korean age system worked, and how it was tied to the Lunar New Year. In turn, Lance told him about Ramadan, and all the huge parties his family held when they broke their fast. Keith always wished he had a family to share holidays with. He never ended up in a Korean foster family, and always felt so – _disconnected_ from every aspect of his culture. A lot of the time the only Korean thing about Keith was his face and his name. It looked like culture was a big part of Lance’s life, and was so entwined with everything about him that he didn’t need to think twice about it.

“…so remember, always go for the samosas first, they run out fast.” Lance explained that their family parties were huge, and dinner time was always a battle between the little kids and teenagers.

“Noted. Also, _Rush Hour_ is the obvious choice here.” Keith reminded him.

Lance laughed in agreement, and started it up.

"Hey Kieth" Lance prompted softly during the opening credits. 

"Yeah?" 

"Thanks for telling me." He looked over a Keith, a small smile on his face.  
Keith blushed, returning the smile.

“Also, before I forget.” Keith started with a wicked grin on his face, “We need a rematch on that race.”  

“Oh it is _on_ , Mullet.”

****

Half an hour later they were informed it was dinner time, with Sadie serving as messenger pigeon. She lightly knocked on the door, muttering quietly that it was time to eat. Lance thanked her, and the two boys followed her down the stairs. Keith was still in a little bit of pain, but the icing helped lessen the swelling greatly. He still needed to hold on to Lance while they slowly trudged down the stairs, Keith trying not to give away his nervousness at eating dinner with Lance’s entire family.

Lance’s mother was still cooking, Keith noticed. She was rolling out dough and spinning it around; before taking the dough and flipping it back and forth between her hands and placing it on a black pan on the stove. Keith watched in amazement and she whipped out several pieces of bread in such a short amount of time. He stood awkwardly by the stairs as the table was being set up, everyone pitching in and doing something. Sam and Sadie were putting the food in dishes and moving it to the table, Ike was placing plates around the table on the placemats. Even Farhan was putting down spoons and forks at each plate. Lance moved to go help his mom clean up a little, leaving Keith to awkwardly stand at the side. He wanted to do _something_ he just didn’t know what, everyone looked busy and he didn’t want to interrupt them.

He moved to try to ask Lance if he could help in any way before he heard the loud jingling of Luna’s collar followed by a high pitched laugh. He turned to see Ayesha running in the direction of the kitchen, Luna trotting behind her and another tall slim woman who Keith could only guess was Ayesha’s mother, and Lance’s sister-in-law. She was smiling fondly while watching Ayesha and Luna play around with each other and didn’t take notice of Keith until she was right next to him.

“Oh!” She startled, finally noticing Keith. “I didn’t see you there! Are you Lance’s friend? I heard you’d be joining us for dinner.” She smiled warmly, and Keith was taken aback at how pretty she was.

She had long curly hair that was tied up in a big ponytail, and was wearing the same traditional looking cotton outfit that Lance’s mother was wearing. She had a huge, friendly smile and Keith momentarily forgot he had to reply.

“Yeah! Uh,” He cleared his throat, “I’m Keith, it’s nice to meet you.” he stuck out his hand awkwardly. Instead of shaking it she just patted Keith’s hair, much like Lance’s mother had done. “I’m Mehr, I see you’ve already met Ayesha. She’s a bit energetic, isn’t she?” She retracted her hand and went back to watching everyone hustle and bustle around with Keith.

“Yeah. She seems to really like Luna though. I don’t blame her.”

Mehr laughed, “Yeah she loves her. She’s been begging us to get a dog but we don’t have the time to take care of her and a puppy.”

Keith nodded, still feeling awkward. “Oh!” Mehr exclaimed, “I heard you hurt your ankle? Lance told me about it. Let me take a look at it, I’m a nurse.”

“Oh what, no it’s – it’s okay I already iced it and stuff you don’t need to look at it. It’s just a sprain.”

“Nonsense! Since I’m here I might as well. We still have time so come on.”

She took him by the elbow and led him to the living room where she ordered him to sit down on the couch. Carefully unwrapping the bandages she felt around, gauging Keith’s reactions and asking him where the pain was as she went, much like Lance had earlier. After she was done, she expertly rewrapped his ankle.

“If you can walk on it, it’s probably just a sprain. I’d say to take some painkillers and keep it wrapped up. Don’t walk around too much while you’re at it. That’ll only make it worse. It should be okay in a week or so.” She had basically told him what he already knew, but it was nice to get a professional opinion, it saved him a trip to the doctors at least.

Mehr started chatting Keith up, asking him about his life and his interests. He responded politely, trying hard not to show off his nervousness. He wanted every member of Lance’s family to like him.

Ayesha eventually ran back in, announcing loudly that she was hungry. He could hear someone else reply that dinner was ready, and that everyone should come to the table to eat.

Seeing them all sitting together at the table really drove home how _big_ Lance’s immediate family was. There was his mother at the head of the table; Ike on the other end, with Mehr and Ayesha in a high chair next to him. Keith sat at the end next to Lance and his mother, directly across from Sam, who was sitting next to Sadie and their sister-in-law. Farhan insisted on sitting right next to Ike and Lance, loudly proclaiming that that was his spot.

Dinner was a lively affair. Everyone was chatting away, talking about their days and what they did recently. It seemed like it had been a while since Ike visited, and everyone was interested at what he was up to. Mehr was feeding Ayesha spoonful’s of rice as Lance made funny faces at her from across the table.

There were several dishes laid out in front of Keith. There was plain rice, the flat bread (“Dude, it’s called roti.” Lance whispered to him and laughing when he asked it to be passed to him) and two different curries, or that was the only way Keith could describe them. One had meat and the other looked like it was made up primarily of okra.

“I hope you can handle your spice dude.” Lance warned, “My mom doesn’t hold back.”

“I’ll have you know,” Keith started in an obnoxious tone, “I eat those fire noodle ramen things all the time and I don’t even cry.”

“Wow.” Lance deadpanned. “Congrats.” He started clapping slowly, causing Keith to hit him lightly on the arm.

Keith took a piece of roti, along with some of the meat curry thing, (“Chicken korma. Not everything is curry.” Lance replied with a laugh when Keith pointed to it.) and was about to pick up his knife and fork when Lance stopped him.

“Homie. My bro. _My dude_. Have you never eaten with roti before?” Keith shook his head. Lance looked appalled. “That’s not how you do it.”

“What?” Keith was puzzled. He never had that much South Asian food before, so he didn’t notice that pretty much everyone, save for those who took rice, were eating with their hands.

“Look. It’s like this.” Lance demonstrated ripping off a piece a bread and using it to take a piece of chicken and some of the sauce before plopping it in his mouth. “See?” Lance said over a mouthful of food.

“Gross. Don’t talk with food in your mouth doofus.” Sam complained from across the table.

“What you mean like this?” Lance then opened his mouth wide, displaying his half eaten food to everyone across the table. Sadie giggled at Sam’s disgusted reaction; everyone else groaned.

“Lance, please. We’re eating.” His mother chided.

“Look Mama, I can do that too!” Ayesha announced before opening her mouth like Lance.

“Stop teaching my daughter weird things Lance. I don’t want her to end up like you.” Ike said in a deadpan voice.

“What, you mean ridiculously attractive and loved by all? I think that’s a great way to end up-ow!” Lance yelped. Ike feigned innocence, like he hadn’t totally just kicked him from under the table.

“If this is what your eldest sibling is like, I’m not surprised you guys turned out this way.” Keith jokingly whispered to Lance.

“Ike isn’t the oldest, Rosie is. I don’t know if you wanna meet her though, she’s a force to be reckoned with. She’s basically been a mini mom since she was ten.”

Keith wondered what Lance’s eldest sister was like, if she was similar to the rest of the silly family. Lance had told him she was in med school right now, so she had next to no time to spend outside of school.

“ _Children, please behave. We have a guest remember?”_ Their mother warned them in Urdu. Lance stuck his tongue out one more time at Sam, earning an annoyed look in return.

“So Keith.” Ike prompted, trying to ignore his sibling’s shenanigans. “Tell us about your family.”

Keith froze, eyes bulging open, caught off guard. He glanced over at Lance, who looked equally as nervous. He was gesturing at his brother to drop the topic, Ike looking back at him with confusion.

“Oh, um.” Keith stuttered. He didn’t want to make this weird, but at the same time figured he should be honest with them. Lance put his hand on his leg and shook his head slightly, signalling that he didn’t have to answer if he didn’t want to. 

“Is everything alright Keith?” Lance’s mother asked softly, looking concerned. All eyes were on him, waiting for his answer. Keith took a deep breath. 

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” Sam cut in, obviously picking up on the tension.

“No, it’s fine.” He smiled timidly. “It’s just that - I don’t…have a family.” He admitted, glancing at them. “What I mean to say is…I’m an orphan. I um, live by myself.” He slumped a little, worried that he weirded them out. He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but you could only sound so casual when talking about being an orphan.

“Sorry if that was a little intense I didn’t want to lie-” Lance’s mother put her hand on his shoulder, smiling at him.

“Well I hope you know that you’re always welcome here.” She was about to say more, but was interrupted by Farhan loudly asking, “What’s an orphan?” Everyone turned to look at him awkwardly, with Mehr gently explaining that it was someone who didn’t have parents.

“WHAT?” Farhan yelled loudly. “That’s not fair!” He turned to Keith, looking extremely serious.

“I’m your parents now.”

Keith couldn’t help it, he burst out into laughter. Farhan looked so serious, and it was the most touching thing Keith had seen in a while. Everyone else erupted into laughter too, Lance ruffling his younger brother’s hair fondly. The tension in the air dissolved as quickly as it was built, and Keith was immensely grateful for that. The rest of the dinner passed by in a similar manner, with easy conversation and silly jokes. Keith found out that Lance’s mother’s cooking lived up to the warning he was given, and he requested no less than three glasses of water. Lance found that absolutely hilarious.

Eventually Ayesha passed out after eating; Mehr called it a food coma. She and Ike took their leave, Mehr reminding Keith to take care of his ankle. Lance and Ike did a complicated handshake before saluting at each other and Keith could see the obvious similarities between the two. Ike said bye to Farhan in an even stranger way, putting his hand under his chin and wiggling his fingers, with Farhan mimicking the action. He hugged Sadie goodbye, picking her up and spinning her around a couple of times, causing her to scream and demand to be let down. Sam reluctantly gave him a hug, calling him gross and saying he should save his beard.

Their mother kissed the three on the forehead, Ike having to bend down to reach her height. They bid adieu to each family member, Ayesha momentarily rousing from her sleep to say a sleepy ‘bye-bye’ before burying her face in her mom’s shoulder again.

After they left the rest of the family started to clean up, Keith powerwalking as fast as he could despite his injury to grab his plate and do his own dishes. He reached the sink and was ready to wash when Lance snuck up behind him like a ghost, whispering a quick “What are you doing?” in his ear, causing him to jump and almost drop the plate.

“Just cleaning up.” He said nonchalantly.

“Nope. No you’re not.” Lance tried to take the plate from Keith, but he tightened his grip.

“Yes. I am.” He tried pulling it back, but Lance also kept his grip firm.

They played tug of war with the plate for a bit before Lance’s mother called him to go sweep, saying that Keith could do the dishes if he wanted to, and that she appreciated it.

Lance frowned, obviously upset that Keith was doing chores on his first visit to his house, but Keith couldn’t be happier. He hated being treated like a guest sometimes, and he felt guilty sitting around when everyone was doing stuff.

He started washing the few dishes already piled in the sink when Sadie brought over some more, dropping them off and looking ready to run as soon as she put them down. Keith suddenly remembered something Lance had told him earlier, and tried to take advantage of this opportunity.

“So I heard you also like k-pop?” Keith asked her. She froze, looking up at Keith with big eyes, trying to figure out how to respond.

“Do you…also like it?” She asked timidly, not making eye contact.

“Yeah! I really like it. I’ve been trying to fix up my Korean, and came across k-pop while I was studying.”

She still looked hesitant. “Which um, which groups do you like?”

“Hmm…I really liked older groups like DBSK and Super Junior because I’ve known about them for a while. But lately I really like BTS and SHINee. Oh and f(x) and Red Velvet too! Also VIXX is kinda cool as well, they make some cool music videos.”

Sadie’s eyes opened up in wonder, and she looked at Keith with sparkly eyes, obviously excited to find someone who shared her interests.

“I really like BTS too! And f(x) are my favourite girl group! Who are your biases? What’s your favourite song? Oh and you _have_ to check out Nine Muses they make some really catchy songs!” It was like a switch had been flipped within her, and the shy timid girl from just a minute ago was nowhere to be found. Instead she was replaced by an extremely excited kid who was practically jumping up and down, her eyes wide while she passionately went on about her favourite songs and groups. Lance wasn’t joking when he said she became a completely different person when she opened up.

She moved to help him dry the dishes, chatting all the while about how she hated the fact that very little groups came to their city and when they did, the concerts were always ridiculously expensive. Keith enjoyed talking to her, happy to be accepted by another member of Lance’s family.

Sadie was complaining about how some groups never seem to get a break from working when Lance walked up to them, finished with whatever he was doing.

Sadie dried the last dish and put it away, ready to launch into another topic when Lance piped up. “It’s getting late Keith, do you wanna go home now?”

“Hm?” Keith said, suddenly yawning. He realized very tired, not noticing how long it had been.

“Welp I think it’s time to get this guy home.” Lance said taking Keith by the shoulders and steering him towards the door. Keith glanced at the clock on the stove, noticing that it was already past ten, and school started in two days. He hadn’t even noticed the time, too busy having fun with Lance’s family. He almost didn’t want to leave, but also didn’t want to overstay his welcome.

Keith said goodbye to Lance’s family. His mother told him he was welcome back anytime, and that Pidge and Hunk showed up all the time anyway. He waved goodbye to Sadie who promised to make him a playlist of songs he should check out. He and Sam shared a fist bump and she gave him a wink and a knowing look, causing the boy to get flustered. Lance looked between then suspiciously, raising and eyebrow and squinting at his sister. She responded with an innocent smile, causing Lance to grow more suspicious.

Their silent conversation was interrupted by Farhan running up to Keith, gesturing at him to bend down. Keith obliged, meeting the boy at eye level. Farhan placed his hand on Keith’s head, looking serious.

“Goodbye, baita. I will see you next time.” Sam and Lance burst out into laughter at their brother’s antics, and Keith smiled.

“Um, what does baita mean?”

“It means son or daughter. Cause Farhan is your parents now remember?” Sam replied between giggles.

“Ah yes,” Keith smiled playing along, “I’ll see you next time, um. Dad?” This was such a weird situation, but Keith found it all very endearing. Farhan smiled and gave him a hug, waving him goodbye once Keith and Lance walked out the door.

While leaving the house Keith accidently stepped on his foot weirdly, causing him to start to fall. He would’ve toppled down the stairs of Lance didn’t grab him, spinning him around and holding him close.

Once again they were face to face, Lance’s breath ghosting over Keith’s lips. Keith looked up at him with wide eyes, Lance having a similar expression. If he wanted to, he could just lean and in and…

“Whoa! You okay there? Be careful homie, let me know if you need to lean on me.” Lance stared at him with worry.

“Um, yeah.” Keith swallowed, slowly pushing away so he wasn’t so close anymore, glad that it was dark and the other boy couldn’t see him blush.

The pain came back in Keith’s ankle, and he bemoaned the fact that he would have to walk home like this.

“Who said we were walking?” Lance teased, flashing that wicked grin again.

Keith looked over at him, and could see Lance holding up something, but it was too dark to tell what it was. He slowly realized what it was as soon as Lance pressed a button, causing the car parked in the driveway to beep and flash its lights.

The two boys made eye contact, and Lance looked elated.

“Lance, no.”

“Lance, _yes.”_  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lbr here we all saw what happened in the first episode would you trust Lance to drive you anywhere???  
> also farhan is me i've adopted like all of my friends i am everyone's mom.  
> I hope you all enjoyed it! So far Sam is my fave character to write lmao. Next chapter is when school starts! And Keith is finally gonna meet Pidge and Hunk eyyyyy


	5. guilty pleasures and lost treasures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aight NSFW warning for this chapter. It isn't much but it;s there. Also how do you write that shit the FUCK IF I KNOW. 
> 
> Also Keith meets Pidge and Hunk YAY.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really need to stop with these chapter titles they are getting out of hand. 
> 
> also wow its been a month since the last chapter lol.... im sorry guys uni has been kicking my ass as i type this there's like 2309430948 assignments due no lie. ok a little bit of lie.  
> BUT I DIGRESS the chapters may take a bit (a lot) of time to write so pls be nice on my poor soul  
> also small PSA:  
> this isnt aimed at anyone in particular just getting it out there yall because i know its cause yall dont know but the word 'paki' is actually a slur! not a common one anymore (ish?) but a slur nonetheless. I know you guys dont mean it that way but in the future please use Pakistani instead! thats the proper demonym (look at me using fancy words) but yeah please keep that in mind thanks! xoxo gossipgirl

_It was hot._

_Very hot._

_And sweaty._

_Lance was sweating, feeling muffled by the heat._

_Suddenly there were hands. Searing hot hands. On his legs, slowly sliding up. The hands were on his thighs, gripping them tightly, sending an electric jolt up his spine. Lance looked at the source of the shocks, finding a boy with a mop of dark hair and huge eyes looking up at him._

_“Keith? What are you doing?”_

_“Lance.” He said his name in a whisper. He had that big-eyed look on his face, lips slightly parted._

_His hands continued to travel up, until they were under his shirt and roaming freely, causing Lance to gasp. Keith moved upward, his face right next to Lance’s neck, sending shivers down his spine with each breath._

_Suddenly, Keith shoved his leg between Lance’s, pushing up. Lance let out a strangled yelp, caught off guard by the sudden spike of pleasure. Keith moved his hands down and then up, taking off Lance’s shirt in one swift motion. Before Lance could react Keith swooped in and kissed the side of Lance’s neck, causing him to jolt. He trailed kisses down the other boy’s chest, never letting up on the pressure between his legs._

_Lance started to breathe heavily, his pulse quickening at every peck or insistent push of Keith’s leg. The other boy brought his hands around, raking his nails down Lance’s back, causing him to gasp and arch his back, electric shocks ruminating from the sensitive spot between his shoulder blades._

_Keith eventually brought his hands down to the front of Lance’s sweatpants, and started palming him mercilessly._

_“A-ah, fuck, Keith.”_

_Keith didn’t say anything, just smirked and licked his lips, his face flushed red. He leaned in close, right in front of the taller boys face. So close that Lance could feel his breath ghost over his lips._

_He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the only sound that came out was…guitars?_

_A slowly rising crescendo of guitars, joined by drums and violins that kept getting louder until-_

“- _TUJHE DEKHA THO YE JAANA SANAM.”_

Lances eyes flew open and he shot up, flailing, almost falling out of his bed. His heart was beating wildly, sweat coating his entire body.

_“PYAAR HOTA HAI DEEWANA SANAM.”_

Lance groaned and flopped back into his bed, wrapping his pillow around his head and trying to ignore the awkward pressure between his legs as his mom blasted old Bollywood tunes, waking up the kids for the first day of the new school year.

_“ABB YAHA SE KAHA JAYE HAM. TEREE BAHO ME MAR JAYE HAM.”_

Lance rolled over to the side, trying to think of something _anything_ other than Keith.

***

He was a giant mess of guilt and regret throughout breakfast, luckily everyone was too busy trying to get ready for school that they didn’t take notice of mopey Lance. Sam almost said something to him but was soon tasked with the job of combing Chintu’s bird nest hair, their mother yelling while making breakfast. It didn’t help that all the children went to different schools in different directions, and Lance had to drag himself to school, since his mother was busy driving his younger siblings.

The other day was interesting, Lance thought on the bus ride to school, absentmindedly leaning on the window. So much had happened. He and Keith had a routine, a bubble of time that the two of them shared before they went back to their lives. Sure they texted every now and then but other than the runs they took together, the two barely saw each other. Keith getting injured broke that bubble, changed around their comfortable routine and launched it into unknown territory.

He remembered very clearly the way his heart basically stopped when he saw Keith fall, and the overwhelming panic he felt when he heard him cry out in pain. In that moment he knew that he cared for Keith, and he cared a lot. Was it more than friendship, was it a crush? The _fuck_ if he knew. He just didn’t want to think too deeply about it, for fear that he might realize he cared for Keith in a way that was different than what he originally thought.

It didn’t help that Keith was absolutely gorgeous. Lance couldn’t deny it; he tried to, but he couldn’t.

Dumb Keith with his dumb mullet and huge dumb eyes and his dumb slim waist and huge lips –

Lance shook his head, hoping that the thoughts would fly out of his brain. An old man eyed him wearily and Lance smiled sheepishly back before turning to look out the window. He closed his eyes, replaying the events from the other day.

He realized very early on how much he enjoyed watching Keith run. It was weird, but Keith had a grace to him when he ran, perfect form and perfect focus. He was still kind of stiff and awkward when they were together, like he was always on the verge of saying or doing something but decided against it. So in those moments like when they had their race, when Keith _let go_ and looked like he was on top of the world that struck Lance that wow, he really did like being around Keith.

His mind flashed back to the piggyback ride he gave Keith, how nice his weight felt against his back, how his soft hair felt against his shoulders, how his breath tickled his neck and how _warm_ he felt and…fuck it, Lance allowed himself to think about it until he got to school. He felt a little guilty though, it seems like Keith was embarrassed by the whole ordeal considering he avoided eye contact with anyone and didn’t speak much during the walk back.

Lance cringed at how he kept blabbering about how he broke his wrist, considering he told the story to distract himself from how hard his heart was beating the entire time.

Then there was Keith in his house, meeting his family. He looked like a deer in headlights, Lance recalled, smiling to himself. He was obviously taken aback by the sudden amount of noise and smells that he was bombarded with. It was like he was a kid in a museum or something, looking around and taking everything in amazement. Lance didn’t get it at first, why he looked so amazed but considering what Keith had told him, it made a lot of sense.

Lance felt a twinge in his chest remembering what Keith had told him. He had said it so softly, sounded so _scared,_ Lance didn’t know how to react. He would’ve never guessed that Keith didn’t have a family but from the way he depended on Shiro so much, the pieces started to fall into place.

He kept cycling through the events of that day, the interactions Keith had with his family.  His entire family seemed to like him, his mom especially told him to invite him back as much as possible. He didn’t know how Sam felt, and was worried that she maybe didn’t like him. He remembered seeing her leave his room and seeing Keith look pale when he went back in. He would have to ask Sam what that was all about. She did that with all his friends, gave them a little ‘talk’ that left them terrified, none of them would ever tell him what she said though. But at dinner she seemed fine with him, so maybe everything was okay? He couldn’t stand it if his family didn’t like his friends.

At that moment his mind decided it hated him, and flashed back to the moment in the bathroom. Lance squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the memory.

Okay yes, it was partially his fault for hoisting Keith up to the counter, grabbing his waist and getting real close to his face. But it wasn’t his fault when Keith gave him that _look,_ all wide eyed and lips slightly parted, face looking open and vulnerable-okay it was totally his fault. He gave him that look again when he stumbled while they were leaving. Did Keith realize how he looked when he did that? Was he doing it on purpose to torture Lance? Both times Lance’s heart stopped in his chest. Both times he thought about how it would feel if he just leaned in and kissed him.

 _NOPE. Nope nope nope._ Lance was trying to push that train of thought out of his head. He didn’t want to think about it. Because if he thought about it, he would act weird and different and he did _not_ want to weird out Keith. Lance never once considered Keith as someone he would crush on, just a new friend that needed his help. Plus, he didn’t even know if Keith was gay, let alone interested in Lance. He vowed to never bring it up. Keith needed a _friend_ not someone who was only interested in getting his in pants. Liking him was not an option.

He smiled at the memory on the drive back, the two boys arguing over the choice of radio station even though it would only be a ten minute drive.

_“Leave it on The Edge! They’re playing The Black Parade!”_

_“Dude. MCR is like ancient. Like from middle school ancient.”_

_“Listen dude. That was my shit.”_

_“You were an emo kid? Actually, I don’t find that hard to believe.”_

_“Ha-ha. Now stop changing it!”_

_“But Beyoncé is playing on Kiss FM dude. How can you change the station when Queen Bey is on?”_

_“Listen, just let me relive my emo days. Just this once.”_

_“Fine. But I can’t believe you also listen to K-pop.”_

_“I am a man of many tastes.”_

_Lance barked out a laugh at that, Keith smirking in response._

_“Also dude, what’s up with the formality? You don’t have to call my mom ‘ma’am’.”_

_“I didn’t want to be rude.”_

_“Listen I think she’s more offended that you were being so stiff. Just call her aunty.”_

_“But she’s not my aunt?”_

_Lance couldn’t help bursting out into laughter again. “Nah dude it’s like, well, it gives a sense of familiarity y’know? Like calling her ma’am or Mrs. Siddiqui is too formal. Aunty is a nice in between.”_

_“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”_

“Next stop: Kennedy Road.”

The automated voice signalling his stop jolted Lance out of his thoughts, and he scrambled to press the STOP button. He got up and stood by the back doors waiting for the bus to halt to a stop. Yelling out a quick thank you to the bus driver before heading out to walk to his school.

He used that walk to try to clear his head, trying not to think about his dream this morning or the events that probably caused it to happen. But trying not to think about was still thinking about it, and the surge of guilt came back to him. He felt like absolute shit, he’d only known Keith for a little over a month, and he was already having wet dreams about him. It was like his brain was trying to ruin every possible friendship he could have. His first class of the day would probably help him forget it though, math was never his strong suit.

He slumped into homeroom ten minutes before the bell rang, immediately taking the spot next to Hunk. Pidge wouldn’t be in their homeroom because they were technically in the year below Hunk and Lance, but they were also a genius and had grade twelve classes anyway.

His morning classes seem to drag on, especially biology since Hunk wasn’t in the same class with him. His teacher was an old man way past retirement age, and everyone had to be deathly silent in order to hear him. Calculus was as terrible as Lance expected it to be.

Lunch was a welcome repose from the boring morning, hopefully the afternoon would be better. Lance greeted and chatted up a few classmates he knew along with some of his teammates from the soccer club. They were all welcome distractions for him, but as soon as he sat down at a table in the cafeteria, waiting for Hunk and Pidge, did the guilt come flooding back to him. He rested his head in his hand propped up on the table, trying not to wallow too much.

“Hey there gloomy, sad you have to start being productive again?” Pidge joked as they sat down on the seat across from Lance.

“Alas, the days of just sitting around playing video games and watching anime are over! Whatever shalt I do now? Tell me squire, what is my purpose now?” Lance gestured around dramatically to match his theatrics, hoping it didn’t look too forced. His antics almost caused the plate of food Hunk bought to get knocked out of his hands. Pidge looked at him pointedly.

“Hey watch it bro! I won’t have you ruining my mashed potatoes.”

“Bruh I’d be doing you a favour. The food here sucks.”

“Don’t you talk that way about Bibi’s cooking! She’s trying very to accommodate all you ungrateful teenagers. And her food her excellent thank you very much.” Hunk replied defensively. 

“Plus, you’re not one to talk. Your mom makes you lunch every morning. You haven’t ever tried the food here.” Pidge chided in.

“True. But how can I say no to my Ammi’s cooking?”

Pidge and Hunk both rolled their eyes as Lance excitedly opened up his Tupperware to reveal leftovers from dinner the other day. Even if they were leftovers they were still his mom’s cooking and therefore great.

They chatted about their mornings, Hunk and Lance complaining about their strict calc teacher and Pidge gloating about how amazing their computer science teacher was. They caught up on what happened over the summer, despite it being only a few weeks since they saw each other.

“So how’s Keith?” Hunk suddenly asked, genuinely curious.

Lance froze and Pidge eyed him curiously; that was an unusual way to react, Lance thought.

“Uh, he’s fine. I just saw him a few days ago actually. We had a race and he ended up tripping and sprained his ankle-“

“Whoa what!” Hunk exclaimed, “Is he okay? He’s a runner isn’t he?”

“Yeah, I took him back to my house and took care of it. Iced it and stuff. Bhaijan was visiting so I got Bhabhi to look at it. It’s nothing terrible, he’s gonna be fine in a week.”

“Whoa whoa wait. Let’s put this car in reverse and back it up a little here.” Pidge started. “He met your family?”

“Yeah, why?”

Pidge and Hunk exchanged looks. “How did it go?” Pidge asked curiously.

“Fine?” Lance was puzzled. “He met my family and then stayed for dinner. He got along with pretty much everyone. Sam liked him, he chatted with Sadie and Farhan has officially adopted him as his son.”

“Seriously?!” Pidge exclaimed. “It took months before Sadie would even look at me! Damn, now I wanna meet this guy. First you won’t shut up about him but now your family loves him too? That’s not fair.”

Lance tried to ignore the comment about how he wouldn’t shut up about Keith, and it took everything in him not to blush.

“I don’t know what to tell ya man, my family seems to love emo kids with mullets.”

“What part of him is emo?” Hunk asked, confused.

“He listens to My Chemical Romance.” Lance scoffed.

“He does!?” Hunk’s eyes lit up. “We’re officially bffs. Also Lance.” He looked at him seriously. “Don’t think you can escape your past. Remember your ‘rawr means I love you in dinosaur phase-”

“NO ONE NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT.” Lance half yelled, slapping a hand over Hunk’s mouth and cringing at the memory.

“You had a scene phase!?” Pidge looked delighted at this new tidbit of information. Probably for blackmail purposes.

“Oh god Pidge no.”

“Hunk, _tell me everything.”_

Lance groaned loudly in protest as Hunk went on excitedly about Lance’s embarrassing phase of outrageously colored hair and Blood on the Dancefloor t-shirts.

He ate his lunch grumpily, trying to ignore the snickers Pidge let out every so often at Lance’s middle school adventures.

“I would’ve _loved_ to know you back then.”

“You would’ve tormented me to no end. Not any different than now to be honest.”

Pidge finger gunned and clicked their tongue at Lance, earning an unimpressed look from the other boy.

“Also Hunk. You are officially demoted from super best friend to just best friend. I hope you reflect on your actions.”

“Oh nooo.” Hunk feigned fainting. “Whatever shall I doooooo?”

The three teens burst out into laughter then, falling into easy conversation after that. Lance was still kind of distracted, and it must have been noticeable because after a small lull in the conversation, Pidge suddenly piped up: “Hey, Lance are you okay?”

“Yeah you seem distracted.” Hunk added in.

Damn it. He loved his friends but also hated them for being so observant.

“It’s nothing.” Lance tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

Pidge didn’t seem to believe him, because they leaned over the table and got right up into Lance’s face, scrunching up their face and staring at him closely. Lance stared back, hoping the ridiculous faces he was making would distract them.

“Bullshit dude. I’ve known you long enough to know when something’s up. Spill or I’m texting Sam.”

“What?! What makes you think she would know what’s wrong?”

“Ha! So you admit there’s something wrong!”

Goddammit. Lance slumped in defeat. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against the cafeteria table. Well it would be better to talk to someone about it then bottle it up. But at the same time, he still felt incredibly embarrassed and guilty.

“I had a bad dream.” He mumbled into the table. It wasn’t a _total_ lie.

Hunk and Pidge shared a knowing look, and Lance knew exactly what they were thinking; he felt bad because he knew he was misleading them, but he also didn’t want to tell them that he had a wet dream about Keith.

“How bad was it?” Pidge asked softly.

“Not that bad. Like a five.” Lance faced away from them, feeling even guiltier now that he was lying to his friends.

They both nodded in understanding, dropping the subject immediately. Lance appreciated that his friends knew that if he wanted to talk to them, he would on his own terms.

“Anywho,” Lance sat up suddenly, “What are your afternoons like?”

“History and Chem.” Hunk responded.

“Ugh gross. Wait do you have chemistry with Mr. Lee?”

“Yep!”

“Yes! Now I can just copy your homework for the semester.”

“Like I’d let you.”

“Aw c’mon Hunk.”

“Stop giving me those puppy eyes, you know I’m weak.”

“That’s exactly why I’m doing it.”

“Huuuuunk.” Lance dialed up the pouting, getting right up in Hunk’s face.

“Fine! But you’re buying me lunch for a week!”

Pidge shook their head, disappointment very clear on their face.

***

The day ended with Lance very nearly falling asleep last period, Hunk having to nudge him awake when their teacher walked by. He was ready to head home as soon as possible, but was caught by his soccer coach informing him that the first try outs for the season were starting next week. At six am sharp. Lance groaned before realizing that he would have to get up before dawn anyway, considering the first day of Ramadan was tomorrow.

 _Oh joy._ Lance thought. _Soccer practice on no food and very little sleep._ He trudged his way to the bus stop, dreading the next month for the fasting, but looking forward to the good food and the parties.

Lance flopped down on his bed as soon as he reached home, strategically maneuvering around his siblings and mother getting ready for the first day of fasting. Alone in his room, he was reminded of what happened in the morning, and had to physically stop himself from screaming, hating his brain once again. He resolved to just get over it, hoping that the next time he saw Keith, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing in the world.

He heard the _ping!_ of his phone signalling he had a text, and begrudgingly rolled over and blindly felt around before hitting the cool metal.

The text was from Keithbecause of course it was, and Lance hesitantly opened up the text.

\--- 

_|Mullet (555-6732) 8:32 pm|_

_Eid Mubarak._

_\---_

Lance looked at it quizzically, about to correct Keith when his phone buzzed two more times.

\--- 

_|Mullet (555-6732) 8:32 pm|_

_CORRECTION. Allura just told me Eid happens at the end._

_Ramadan Mubarak._

_\---_

Lance smiled, his chest warming at the small act of thoughtfulness.

**

“Did I spell it right?”

“Keith for the last time yes, it’s not that hard-”

“But are you sure?!”

“Keith!” Allura smushed his face and turned him so they were looking in the eye, “I literally speak Arabic, I _know._ You spelt it right.”

Shiro was chuckling softly in the corner over his friend’s panic over trying very hard not to be culturally insensitive.

Keith conceded. “Aight fine I’ll hit send. Eid Mubarak to Lance.”

“Keith.”

“What.”

“Eid is what happens at the end. It’s not the actual month that’s happening now. It’s Ramadan.”

There was a split second where Keith processed what she just said.

“SEE I TOLD YOU! YOU NEEDED TO LOOK IT OVER.”

“It’s just a text message! Don’t worry about it too much.”

“He’s gonna think I’m some ignorant asshole.”

“But you are. Ignorant, I mean.”

“Thanks, Shiro.” Keith deadpanned.

“Anytime buddy. Now keep distracting Allura, I’m winning.”

“Not until I get that blue shell, watch out Luigi.”

“Please Princess Peach, I’m going to annihilate you.”

Keith rolled his eyes at their banter, amused that his friends came over to comfort him and drop off his schedule and other first day of school things, but instead started an impromptu Mario Kart tournament. Typical.  

“No!” Shiro wailed. “Not the bullet!”

Allura cackled beside him as she rocket launched to first place, keeping her promise of crushing Luigi.

***

A little under a week had passed and the swelling in his ankle was virtually non-existent when Keith went back to school, immediately getting chewed out by his Track and Field coach first thing in the morning for not taking care of himself better. Worse yet, he was barred from attending practice for another week in order to let his ankle fully heal.

“Just because you can walk on it doesn’t mean you can run on it alright. I won’t have you ruining your foot.”

“Yes, coach.”

“Good.” The gruff older man clapped him on the back and walked away, the bell signalling the start of homeroom ringing shortly after.

Keith was a cloud of frustration and gloominess, and even Shiro was hesitant to approach him in the two classes they had together.

“Cheer up Keith!” Shiro tried during lunch time. “I know you can’t go to practice but at least one good thing came out of this.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith replied incredulously. “And what’s that?”

“You got to know Lance, better. You even met his family.”

It took all of Keith’s willpower to not blush furiously at that. He looked away, too embarrassed to admit that Shiro was right.

“I guess.” He tried to say nonchalantly, stabbing his salad to try to distract himself. “By the way, where’s Allura?”

“Student council meeting, you know how it is.”

Oh boy did he. Allura would often rant about how lazy and unmotivated everyone on the council seemed to be, and she toned it down around Keith. He could only imagine the venting Shiro had to go through. He didn’t blame her though, trying to organize a rag tag group of teens to work together sounded like a tiring job.

“How is he by the way? Lance, I mean.” Shiro tried to look inconspicuous. It didn’t work.

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. “Why.”

“Oh you know, just wondering.” He took in a spoonful of rice and looked anywhere but Keith’s accusing glare.

Keith leaned back, “He’s fine. We haven’t talked much since school started. He just told me that soccer practice starts soon. And that waking up before dawn is a pain in the ass.”

“Ouch, I can imagine. Especially when his practice starts, he’ll be doing it on very little food. Must be tough.”

“Yeah that’s what I said. Honestly I have a lot of respect for him for toughing it out like that. It’s pretty amazing.”

Shiro smirked.

“What.”

“Oh, nothing.”

Keith opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by Allura taking the seat next to Shiro, looking frazzled.

“Tough crowd huh?” He rubbed her back soothingly.

“Oh you have no idea.”

***

Keith took his coach’s advice and sat out of practice for a week to let his ankle heal fully, still practicing secretly on the weekends to maintain his form. His coach said he couldn’t run, he didn’t say anything about _light jogs._ He was extra careful and made sure he didn’t exert himself too much, just enough that he wouldn’t get out of the habit.

He was on his way back from one of these ‘light jogs,’ his ankle pretty much fully recovered, when he saw what looked like a small red square off the side of the trail, covered by leaves but still bright enough for him to see it. He slowed down until he was next to it, bending over to pick it up and brushing the excess dirt off of it.

It looked like a small leather wallet with an elephant carved into the front. It looked kind of worn and Keith popped it open to see who it belonged to.

A quick once over of the wallet revealed about forty dollars in cash, several coupons, loyalty cards and a smattering of IDs. He pulled one out and was met face to face with a scowling girl that looked very familiar before his eyes flicked over at the name. _Sameera Siddiqui._  

Keith’s eyebrows shot up. She must have lost it on a walk with Luna or something, Lance mentioned she went on those often. He was about to close it back up and pocket it before he saw the corner of a paper sticking out of a pocket in the wallet. He carefully pulled it out to reveal a small polaroid of the Siddiqui family, namely their father and all of his kids. It looked like a hastily taken selfie, with their dad in the middle laughing, trying to take a picture as his children swarmed around him, all in various states of laughing or smiling. Ike was in the far right corner looking surprised, another woman with big curly hair and a prominent nose looking at him and laughing. He couldn’t tell who it was because he could only see her profile, but he guessed it was Lance’s eldest sister. Sadie was right next to her dad on his left, hoisting a very young Farhan up to make sure he got into the photo. Lance was crowded into the corner, only the top of his head and his very surprised looking eyes visible. Keith chuckled at how ridiculous he looked. He noticed Sam right next to her father’s face, a huge smile plastered across it as well as what looked like icing, and realized it was a picture from her birthday.

Keith felt a small pang in his chest, it seems like all of them loved their dad very much. Keith put the photo back quickly, feeling like he stumbled upon something very personal.

He closed the wallet up and put it in his pocket, mentally noting that he should go home and text Lance that he had it, because his phone was dead right now.

Instead he found himself pausing at the fork in the road where they usually split, contemplating just dropping it off now. He checked his watch. It was 5:47 on a Wednesday evening, and Keith guessed most of Lance’s family would be home. Would he be intruding? Would it be rude to show up out of the blue? He was just returning a wallet he found, and the owner just happened to be Lance’s sister.

 _Ah fuck it._ He thought, mentally chiding himself for overthinking once again. He set off again, trying to retrace the steps he took with Lance two weeks ago when he last visited his house. He was about to give up, confused and lost because all the houses looked the exact same when he noticed the house with the number 68, remembering the time Lance had mentioned that they were _so close yet so far._

He approached it awkwardly, his palms sweating.

_Alright Cho. You’re just gonna be like hey I found this then dip. It’s not hard._

He nervously pressed the doorbell, looking around awkwardly like he did something he shouldn’t have done.

He heard yelling on the other side and the sound of footsteps thumping down stairs as someone approached the door very excitedly. He saw the curtain at the little window next to the door move briefly, a flash of dark hair there and gone in an instant.

The door flew open abruptly, a very excited looking Farhan on the other side.

“MY SON.”

Keith couldn’t help but burst out into laughter, suddenly remembering their little in-joke from the other day.

“Hey there, Chintu. I, uh found this.” He pulled the wallet out and showed it to the boy. “It’s Sam’s right?”

“Yeah it is! She was freaking out the other day because she had lost it!”

“Farhan? Darwaaza pay kaun hai?” He heard their mother call out. _Who’s at the door?_

 _“_ It’s Keith!” He yelled back.

Mrs. Siddiqui walked up behind the little boy, drying her hands on her scarf. She looked surprised to see him, but greeted him warmly.

“Keith! You’re looking well. It looks like your foot is better.” She smiled at him fondly.  “I didn’t know you were coming over. Why don’t you come in?”

“Uh, I wasn’t um planning to. I just came over here to return this.” He handed the wallet back to her. “I found it on the trail when I was out.”

“Oh! Jazakallah Khayran!” She exclaimed, putting her hand on his head and looking relieved. “This is Sam’s, I’ll give it to her when she comes back. She’ll be so thankful! She’s been so worried since she lost it.”

“Its no big deal, I just found it while I was out.” She retracted her hand and he shifted awkwardly and cleared his throat before mumbling, “Then I’ll see myself ou-“

“Lance is upstairs, why don’t you say hi?” She interrupted, obviously not hearing him.

“Oh, um I couldn’t, I didn’t even tell him I was coming-“

“It’s fine, he’ll be happy to see you!”

“But-“

She ushered him inside quickly, blatantly ignoring his protests. Farhan followed him happily before his mother said something to him, the boy whined back, but she insisted and the two walked toward the kitchen together. Keith stood awkwardly at the foot of the stairs and looked up towards the top awkwardly.

He never went anywhere uninvited, he would always tell Shiro before he dropped by. Well most of the time anyway. Was this really okay? Just coming over like this? Keith resolved he would just say hi, stay long enough till Sam came back, then go home.

He walked up the stairs and approached Lance’s room, raising his hand and tapping lightly on the door.

“Password?” An unfamiliar voice said in an exaggerated tone.

“What?” Keith replied instantly, sounding kind of curt.

“Wait, what?” He could hear the voice on the other side say. “Who the heck is that?”

“I dunno.” Another unfamiliar voice said.

 _Oh shit._ Keith froze. _Lance has friends over. I should go._

He turned around quickly and was about to make his escape before he came face to face with the bottom half of a face, he put his hands up to stop from crashing into the other person, and felt their hands clutch his arms to stop him from toppling over.

“Whoa what?!” Lance exclaimed. He looked down. _“Keith?!_ What are you doing in my house?”

“I-um.” He stuttered. “Could you let go of me first?”

“What? Oh.” Lance dropped his hands quickly and backed up a few steps, looking around and holding the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I found Sam’s wallet while I was out running. I just came to return it to her and leave but your mom insisted I come say hi.”

“Oh. I was wondering who was at the door.” He paused, then let out a chuckle. “I was wondering why Chintu yelled ‘my son’ really loudly.” He looked pained, like he didn’t want to be there. Keith’s heart sank.

He huffed out a laugh to try to relieve some of the tension. “Ah yeah, he was really excited.”

“Is your uh, ankle better? I mean, it probably is. You just said you went out for a run and um yeah.”

“Yeah it’s healed. How’s soccer practice? Must be hard when you’re fasting.”

“It hasn’t started yet actually, but it’s not that big of a deal, you get used to it.”

_It’s so awkward why is it so awkward? Is it just me? I haven’t seen him in a bit but I haven’t said anything to offend him have I? Oh my god what if that mix up with the text message really upset him. Shit._

They stood there for a few moments, silence heavy in the air when Lance gestured to the door, and Keith gave a quick nod in return.

He turned around and opened the door, expecting it to swing open, when he hit something heavy and heard a loud _oof!_ and a high pitched _ow, Hunk!_ Keith froze, realizing what just happened, he moved to say sorry, but Lance was quicker.

“What the hell? Were you guys eavesdropping?”

“What? Us?” A large boy with tan skin said incredulously. “We would _never.”_

“Yeah, we were on our way out when you just so happened to open the door on our faces.” A smaller, boy? Girl? With messy brown hair and glasses replied.

Lance looked at them with an unimpressed look on his face, obviously not buying their story.

“Also who dis.” The kid in the glasses pointed to Keith.

Keith was about to reply when the taller boy suddenly got really excited. “Wait!” He got right up into Keith’s face. “ARE YOU KEITH?”

“Um,” Keith leaned back a little. The other boy was tall, had really broad shoulders and radiated sunshine. He looked like he would be a lot of fun to hug. “Yes? And I’m guessing you’re Hunk? And you’re Pidge?” He looked around Hunk at the other person.

“Yep!” Pidge waved. “They pronouns please.”

Keith blinked in confusion a few times before he fully processed what they said. He nodded vigorously. “Um yeah, right! Noted.”

“What are you doing here?” Hunk asked. “I mean! Like we didn’t know you were coming and it seems like Lance didn’t either.”

“Aha! So you _were_ eavesdropping.”

Hunk’s eyes went wide while Pidge rolled theirs.

“Alright fine we were!”

Keith looked between the two. “Um. I found Sam’s wallet and wanted to return it to her.”

“Oh, makes sense. Lance probably would’ve told us if you were coming.”  

Keith looked at Pidge again, something tugging at the back of his mind.

“Have I met you before?” Keith asked.

“Who me?” Pidge pointed to themselves. “I don’t think so?”

“You just look…very familiar.” Keith couldn’t place it.

“Well this devilishly attractive face is hard to forget.” Pidge placed a hand under their chin and looked dramatically off into the distance; Keith could swear their glasses were glinting.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Please don’t weird him out I need other friends to balance out being friends with you two.”

“Wow rude. What about the time you almost cried in kindergarten because I was sick for a day?”

“Why did they need to know that. No one needs to know that.”

Hunk laughed, and ruffled Lance’s hair fondly, much to the other boy’s disdain.

Keith looked over at Pidge and they were looking at him as if they were analyzing him, hand on chin and eyes squinted.

“Yep.” They concluded after a moment. “That is indeed a nice mullet.”

“ _IT’S NOT A MULLET_.”

All three people erupted into laughter, and Keith immediately started blushing, embarrassed at his outburst.

***

The four (now) friends hung out in Lance’s room, watching the first season of _The X-Files_ because Lance thought it was an absolute travesty Keith hadn’t seen it yet. Keith couldn’t help but notice that Lance kept his distance, sitting a little bit away from Keith.

Hunk and Pidge on the other hand, accepted Keith immediately. The two were already pretty friendly, and it didn’t take long before they were able to have easy conversation that devolved into lighthearted banter.

“Yo man, that smoking dude freaks me out. I don’t have a good feeling about him.”

“Nah, he’s just a weirdo, Hunk. I doubt he’s _that bad.”_

Lance giggled, obviously aware of something the other two didn’t know.

“Oh my god, look at those phones!” Pidge pointed at the laptop screen accusingly. “They are ancient! They have to pull the antenna up!”

“Oh my god you guys.” Hunk said seriously.

“What is it?” Keith replied, worried.

“Look.” Hunk pointed to the screen. “It’s a _floppy disk.”_

Lance whacked him with a pillow as he started laughing, upset that they weren’t taking this seriously.

Keith on the other hand was fascinated. He kept asking Lance questions about the show, how the seasons progressed and the like. Lance appreciated his enthusiasm.

“Scully is literally me.” Keith said after a while. “I can relate to her on a spiritual level.”

“You know.” Pidge started, “Lance is basically Mulder.”

“I am?” Lance perked up. “Thanks!”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at them.  

“Yo man, he’s so cool. What if I went around in a suit like that, do you think I’ll be as cool?” Lance grabbed a nearby pair of sunglasses and started posing dramatically.

“Nope.”

“Nah.”

“Not a chance.”

Lance made a face at them and the four went back to watching the show. Hunk piped up after a while.

“Y’know. After seeing you two together, you guys basically are Scully and Mulder.”

Lance beamed, looking over at Keith excitedly. “Does this mean I can call you Scully?!”

“Not a chance.”

“Too late, I’m already doing it, Scully.”

Keith was about to retort when suddenly there was an excited shriek soon followed by the sound of someone running up the stairs. The door to Lance’s room burst open a few moments later and Sam barged in, scaring the wits out of the four. She looked around the room before her eyes zeroed in on Keith, and she stalked up to him quickly.

He didn’t know why but Keith suddenly felt a surge of panic, and started backing up on his place on Lance’s bed. Sam grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye, right next to face.

“You were the one that found my wallet right?”

“Yes.” He squeaked out.

She looked at him for another split second before engulfing him in a hug, slowly cutting off his breathing. Keith flailed as she suffocated him, unsure of what to do. She let him go as abruptly as she trapped him, then kissed him on the forehead.

Keith’s face went flaming red and he gaped like a fish, and the other three had a similar response. She straightened up and looked over at Lance.

“Keep him.” She yelled at Lance before stalking off again, the entire thing lasting no more than a minute.

Lance looked mortified, Hunk had his mouth open in a silent scream, and Pidge was doubled over trying not to laugh their head off.

“Can we all agree,” Keith let out in a high pitched voice. “That that never happened?”

Both Lance and Hunk nodded their heads silently, Pidge on the other hand, had different plans.

“Nope! Caught that all on camera!” They teased, holding up their phone.

“Pidge you- _you,”_ Keith searched for the right word. “You gremlin!”

Lance looked impressed, and the four of them didn’t hesitate before bursting out into laughter, Keith lunging for Pidge’s phone while they were distracted, but failing and landing face first on the mattress.

Keith laid there grinning, basking in the moment.

He turned his head and caught Lance’s eye; he was mid-laugh but stopped as soon as he made eye contact with Keith. The two stared at each other, warm smiles never leaving their face.

“So what, you gonna make out now or something?”

“ _PIDGE!”_ The two boys shrieked in unison, but it was lost over the sound of their cackling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again sorry this took so long im really busy also stressed also kinda lazy? sometimes its just hard to write pls understand. also im posting this at like 3 am so pls point out any grammatical errors u see homies i'd appreciate it thnx 
> 
> next chapter lance meets shiro oh my god whoaaaaaaaaa  
> deuces yall see ya probably next month (hopefully sooner sobs)
> 
> ALSO ALMOST 100 KUDOS AND OVER 500 HITS YALL ARE THE REAL MVPS THANK YOU ;---;  
> i know that the chapters have been very slow so far BUT I PROMISE THERE WILL BE MORE ACTION! DRAMA! INTRIGUE! ANGST! stay tuned kids!


	6. soccer games and the family name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WOW OK THIS GIANT BEAST OF A CHAPTER IS LIKE  
> 12K WORDS  
> HWO THE HECKIE  
> but yeah in this chapter Lance meets Shiro and Allura.  
> Also some feels! Angst! Backstory!  
> HUZZAH  
> Note: small edits will br made in the next couple days bc I'm an idiot who decided to throw this out there delirious and running on 2 hours of sleep. gg me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ME @ MYSELF : STOP POSTING SHIT AT 6 AM  
> pls enjoy bc its 6 am an di need to get up in 2 hours to go on a 5 hour drive RIP ME  
> AIGHT SO SMALL WARNING FOR HOMOPHOBIA  
> DAT SHIT HAPPENS YO  
> PLS GIVE ME FEEDBACK I WILL APPRECIATE  
> I LOVE U ALL  
> IM OFF TO SLEEP  
> GOODNIGTH

September went by in a flash. The last traces of summer were quickly forgotten as the temperature started to dip and the winds became chilly. Between school, work, and the track team Keith barely had time to think. He and Shiro had several classes together, and their evenings were often spent at the Shirogane house, studying or hanging out. At least the leaves at started to turn, and even though Keith didn’t feel that great, the scenery outside made him feel a lot better.

Interactions with Lance were kept brief, usually a _hey how are you,_ or a complaint about school. Both boys were swamped with their respective responsibilities, and considering neither went to school together, it was hard to interact. Keith tried taking Lance’s initial advice of making more friends one step further by attempting to socialize with his coworkers, but unsurprisingly the other employees of Food Basics didn’t share much in common with Keith. He wasn’t as interested in talking with his coworkers like he was Lance; he kept up friendly conversations with them, chatted about school but it never went beyond that. Frankly, Keith wasn’t interested in that either.

He did have one coworker that he briefly had a crush on, the dude was tall and handsome, but then Keith had one conversation with him where all he talked about was the best kind of protein powder for his diet, and Keith figured socializing wasn’t for him. Plus, Lance was cuter.

 _Lance._ That dumb tall boy with a hooked nose and gorgeous eyes and tan skin that practically glowed in the sunlight. That first conversation that Keith had with Sam in her brother’s bedroom, where she scared the shit out of him replayed in his mind.

He _liked_ Lance. A lot. Friend? Yes. Crush? That was still up in the air. Did he want to date him? Keith had no idea. He wanted to give himself time to figure it out, because as it stands, he actually knew very little about the other boy, just the bits and pieces he showed him. Lance knew far more about Keith, but not everything. Keith attempted to do the modern equivalent of snooping, and tried to creep Lance’s facebook page. _Everyone does it,_ was his justification to himself when he clicked the search bar and typed in _Lance Siddiqui._ He was met with several privacy barriers, and an unclickable profile picture. His cover photo was luckily clickable, and featured the Siddiqui family on a beach from a few years ago, everyone was there, including his father and even Luna. Keith laughed at Lance, who was flexing in his swim trunks, despite looking like he weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. His cursor hovered over the _Add Friend_ button, but he decided against it.

Keith wanted to wait until they were out of this, for lack of a better word, ‘honeymoon’ phase of friendship. Both were obviously excited to get to know the other more, but would that hold up now that the summer and their free time was gone?

It seemed like that answer to that question at the moment was a tentative yes, considering their conversation from the other day, however that had only been on accident.

“Bzzt. Paging Major Keith. Do you read me Major Keith? Bzzt. This is ground control to Major Keith, can you hear me Major Keith?”

Keith was snapped out of his thoughts; without hesitation he deadpanned: “I hear you ground control, I took my protein pills and put my helmet on.” He was greeted with the sight of a very exasperated Shiro waving a fork with a piece of pasta in front of his face. “What? I thought we were singing the song.”

“Ha-ha” The other boy responded in a monotone voice. Keith took that as his cue to lean forward and dramatically chomp down on the penne.

“Hey! I was trying to get your attention, not feed you my food.”

“Mhm. Needs more cheese.”

Shiro rolled his eyes, unimpressed. “What’s got you so deep in thought?”

 _Lance,_ was what he wanted to say. “Nothing in particular,” was what he responded with instead.

“Keith.” Shiro said sternly.

“God, don’t use your dad voice on me.” Keith complained.

“I’m concerned about you son, you seem to be distracted lately.” Shiro leaned in and knotted his eyebrows, but was obviously very amused.

Keith gave his best ‘I’m not amused face,’ which just caused Shiro to burst out into laughter. “Looks like I’ve got two dads now.” Keith mumbled under his breath.

“What was that?” Shiro inquired. Keith looked up at him sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. He tentatively explained what happened with Farhan, and how he had officially adopted him as his son.

“That is downright,” Shiro paused for effect, “The absolutely cutest thing I’ve ever heard, oh my god. I do it to annoy the heck out of you but that’s actually so sweet.” Keith nodded, he couldn’t help but agree that Lance’s younger brother was absolutely adorable.

“Seriously though, what’s up?”

Keith tried looking nonchalant. “Nothing, really.”

Shiro wasn’t convinced. He stared at him, crossing his arms and intensifying his ‘disappointed dad’ face.

Keith couldn’t deal. “Alright fine!” Shiro smirked in victory.

Keith begrudgingly took out his phone, unlocking it and clicking on the messages app. He scrolled up to the beginning of his conversation from last night; wordlessly he handed his phone to Shiro, who took it curiously.

\---

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:34 pm|_

_Jfc im so exhausted coach needs to lay off a little_

_its just been tryouts for three days_

_i was on the team last year he knows im still good can’t he just ease up????_

_PlUS IM RUNNING ON AN EMPTY STOMACH PITY ME_

_oh shit sorry meant to send that to hunk_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:35 pm|_

_It’s fine. Sounds like you’re having a hard time?_

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:35 pm|_

_Im just rly tired from practice._

_we have morning and after school ones and its jst tryouts rn!!!_

_just pick the team and tell me who’s captain pls i just wanna play some real games_

_sorry if im ranting I think im just cranky from the hunger lol_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:37 pm|_

_Nah dude. It’s cool. I’m here if you’re stressed and wanna talk._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:38 pm|_

_thanks bro. u a real mvp_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:38 pm|_

_I don’t know how you do it._

_I have to start waking up for morning practice this entire week starting tomorrow and I’m always paranoid I’m gonna sleep through my alarm._

_You wake up at dawn?? Every day for a month??? That’s amazing._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:40 pm|_

_lol it’s not that amazing dude :P a lot of ppl do it plus when u got my mom you’ll never oversleep lmao_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:41pm|_

_Man I wish I had her as an alarm. I’m actually worried I won’t be able to wake up tomorrow for practice._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:42 pm|_

_do you want me to wake you?_

_keith?_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:47 pm|_

_You’re going to come to my house at 5 am?_

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:49 pm|_

_lol dude i could give u actual wake up calls. even on the days i don’t have practice i’ll have to wake up at like 4 anyway :P_

_|Me (555-2601) 6:51 pm|_

_Oh. You don’t have to do that! I’ll just set like 30 alarms every 2 minutes._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:52 pm|_

_u sure? it’s not a big deal i wouldn’t mind._

_|Me (555-2601) 6:54 pm|_

_Hmm. Alright here’s the deal. I’ll try to wake up on my own and if I don’t text you by 5:30 you can call me and yell at me._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 6:57 pm|_

_deal :P get ready for non stop calling from me._

_|Me (555-2601) 6:58 pm|_

_…_

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 7:00 pm|_

_don’t dot dot dot me_

_|Me (555-2601) 7:01 pm|_

_…_

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 7:03pm|_

_KEITH_

_|Me (555-2601) 7:05 pm|_

_What have I gotten myself into._

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 7:05 pm|_

_a fun time ;)_

_\---_

Shiro’s face went through a range of emotions as he read the conversation, but when he finally looked up, his face was a mixture of confusion and amusement. “So…did he call you this morning?”

Keith looked away.

“Don’t IRL dot dot dot me.”

“He might’ve.”

“Oh my god.” Keith could hear the excitement growing in Shiro’s voice.

“Shiro no.”

“Oh my _god.”_  He looked like his mind was blown.

“Shiro please.”

“He called you. At 5 am. TO WAKE YOU UP.”

“Shiro-“

“WHO DOES THAT?” Shiro was losing it. “I WOULDN’T EVEN DO THAT FOR YOU KEITH. MY OWN FAMILY.”

“Shiro shut up.”

“IS HE JUST REALLY NICE OR DOES HE LOVE YOU OR SOMETHING.”

“ _SHIRO.”_ That was the last straw. “He’s just being nice. He’s gonna be up anyway so why not just help me out right.”

“If you say so.”

“Stop that.”

“Stop _what.”_

“ _That._ That voice. That look. I know what you’re thinking and just stop alright.”

“I’m just happy for you Keith.” He said with a grin on his face.

“It’s not like that Shiro.” Keith’s face steeled all of a sudden. “Seriously.”

Shiro’s smile dropped. “You sure?”

“Yeah. It’s not gonna happen.” Keith paused. “Not that that should’ve been the point anyway! I didn’t become friends with him just to date him. That would be shitty. But yeah he’s straight.”

“Have you asked him?”                                                                                

“What.”

“How do you know if he’s straight if you haven’t asked him? You can’t just assume these things Keith.”

“That’s true but…I’m not gonna ask. What if I weird him out?”

“Well if you do he’s not worth being friends with.” Shiro said plainly.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Always am.”

“Shut up before I flick this pickle at you.”

“Gross.”

The two were about to continue with their bickering, but were interrupted with the _sching!_ of Keith’s phone telling him he had a text. He stared at it sitting on the cafeteria table, confused as to who the heck could be texting him right now. Maybe it was his workplace asking if he could take a shift.

He picked it up slowly, eyebrows shooting up as he noticed who it was from. He hurriedly unlocked his phone and read the text, letting out a gasp of surprise.

He quickly typed out a reply entirely in caps lock, hoping that would convey his excitement.

“Good news?” Shiro asked, obviously curious.

“What makes you say that?” Keith asked, not taking his eyes off the screen until after he hit send.

“You’re grinning.”

“I am?” Keith hadn’t even noticed. He brought a hand up to his face and sure enough, he had a big smile plastered on it.

“You are. Like full out. Whatever it is, it must be amazing.”

“Uh. It’s nothing.” Keith looked away, embarrassed at his reaction. He wasn’t some little kid.

“Oh so it has something to do with Lance.”

“What!? How did you know that?!”

Shriro grinned mischeviously. “’Cause, you always tell me everything up front. Except.” He dragged out the last word in a lilting voice. “When it has to do with Lance.”

Keith reddened, not realizing that he did that. He hated Shiro sometimes for knowing him so well.

Keith paused for a few seconds, realizing that he was acting childish. Why didn’t he want to tell Shiro? It was a good thing, so more people should know.

“Lance made captain.”

“Of his soccer team!?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s amazing! Tell him I said congrats.”

“I will.” He typed out a quick _Shiro says congrats_ and hit send.

“I bet he must be really happy right now. He’s probably gloating to everyone he knows.”

“You know I thought that he would do something like that too but,” Keith paused, reading the text message over.

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 12:16 pm|_

_i made captain?_

_keith i can’t believe it._

_we choose based on coach recs and player votes. they wanted me._

_apparently it was inanimate_

_inanamous*_

_unANIMOUS*****_

Keith chuckled again at the series of spelling mistakes. “He just sounds like he’s in disbelief. He sounds really humbled by it too, like it didn’t occur to him that the team would choose him to be captain.” Keith was about to continue when his phone buzzed a few more times.

_|Lance Siddiqui (555-6732) 12:20 pm|_

_tell him i said thanks_

_but keit_

_o shit i gtg lunch is over ttyl_

_|Me (555-2601) 12:22 pm|_

_Okay. Talk to you soon._

Keith furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what Lance wanted to say. He looked up, an expectant Shiro staring at him.

“Oh! He says thanks.”

“Is something the matter?”

“It just seems like he wanted to say something and didn’t get the chance.” Keith tucked his phone away in his pocket. “I wonder what it was,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Seriously though,” Keith changed the subject. “How can you not like pickles?”

“They’re just rotten cucumbers! Why would I eat pickles when I can have a nice, cool cucumber?”

“Alright, sure. You do you Shiro.”

“Don’t patronize me Keith. I feel very strongly about this.”

“I’m sure you do.”

***

“He gives you _wake up calls?!”_ Allura was absolutely flabbergasted as they got her up to speed the next day. She was too busy with one of the million clubs she was in to have lunch with them yesterday. “Did he call you this morning?” She was leaning over the table, absolutely engrossed in what Keith had told her.

“Yes and yes.” Keith didn’t see why this was such a big deal. I mean it was an awfully nice thing to do. But it’s because Lance was gonna be up anyway, so he was just doing Keith a favour. It wasn’t a big deal. Not at all.

He didn’t know what to expect when Lance called him in the morning; maybe he would blare loud pop music through his phone or yell a _good morning sunsine!_ or something along those lines.

What he didn’t expect was the soft way Lance spoke to him in the mornings, when Keith’s mind was still hazy and the light filtering through his window turned everything blue.

“ _Hey sleepyhead.”_ Keith recalled Lance saying to him the first day he called. His voice was soft and airy, and Keith was thoroughly convinced he was dreaming; he just sounded too sweet to be real. “ _It’s time to get up. You’re gonna miss practice.”_

 _“Ugh, five more minutes.”_ Keith had said groggily, still out of it. Lance had chuckled softly then, and it was a pleasant sound to Keith’s ears. He could listen to it forever. It was so different to the way he usually laughed; loud and unreserved.

 _“Yo loser you’re gonna miss the bus and be late for practice. Wait – who are you talking to this early?”_ He could hear Sam’s voice in the background, sounding a little far away. Keith could hear the sound of Lance shuffling, it sounded like he was covering the receiver because he sounded muffled as he talked to his sister.

“ _No one.”_ He could hear more talking, and eventually what sounded like bickering. Right before he heard a door slam shut he swore he heard a _“Good morning Keith!”_

That definitely woke him up, and he sat up hazily, his blanket still wrapped around him. There was some more shuffling on Lance’s end, the creak of a bed and the sound of a sigh.

_“Are you still there?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Sorry about that.”_ He sounded embarrassed.

_“Its no big deal. I’m awake now at least.”_

_“Ha. Yeah I suppose. Um actually, wait – never mind. I’ll talk to you later then.”_

_Keith was too out of it to realize that Lance had wanted to say something to him. He hummed in response._

_“Hey Lance.”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“Thanks.”_

_There was a pause._

_“Anytime.”_

“I don’t understand,” He heard Allura say, already having moved on to another subject, still thoroughly exhausted from the student council meeting. Being chief secretary meant she had a lot of work to do, but being Allura meant she had to do everything perfectly.

She started an impassioned speech about the importance of allocating funding to the arts department, excitedly waving around her fork and almost flicking macaroni into Keith’s eyes. She transitioned into talking about the absolutely _atrocious_ financial spending that the council had done in the previous years.

“I mean!” She started, angrily taking a bite of her mac and cheese, “Why do we need an expensive vending machine just for the student council room I mean there’s one _down the hall-”_

Suddenly a pair of hands slammed down on the table next to Keith, interrupting Allura and startling the three teenagers, with Shiro letting out a yelp.

“Keith!” He heard a very familiar voice yell, “I knew I’d recognize that mullet anywhere!”

Keith looked up, startled, ready to yell the person who called his hair a mullet when he was met with a pair of shining blue-grey eyes and a cheeky grin.

“What, _Lance?!”_

“Sup bruh.”

“What are you doing here?” Keith asked before taking note of the blue jersey Lance was wearing, the word _LIONS_ and the number 26 printed in bold white letters at the front.

“I have a soccer game here!”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Dude, your school is hosting a tournament. Why _wouldn’t_ I be here?”

“You could have still told me you were coming.”  

“I, uh, sorta forgot you went here until like three seconds ago.”

Keith shot him an unimpressed look.

“Aw don’t give me that! You didn’t realize I’d be here either!”

“That’s because I don’t keep up with most sports outside of track -” He heard Shiro cough, “-and baseball, I had no idea your school was playing today. If I did I would have said something.”

“Keith.” He heard Shiro say. “Didn’t you mention how track practice was cancelled for today?”

“Yeah? So?”

“Think about why.”

Keith suddenly realized it was because of the soccer tournament his school was holding today.

Lance gave him a pouty look, obviously sad that Keith didn’t share the same enthusiasm at their chance meeting.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Looking like a kicked puppy.”

“I do not!”

“Do too.”

“Do _not.”_

 _“_ Do _too.”_

“Ahem,” The sound of Shiro clearing his throat snapped them two out of their bickering, both boys turning to look at the couple watching their little exchange with amusement; Allura displaying the biggest shit-eating grin Keith had ever seen on her. “You wanna introduce us?” Shiro gestured to himself and Allura and then to Lance, looking smug.

“No.” Keith said immediately, not even sparing a thought.

Shiro looked mocked offended, even going as far as placing a hand on his chest for dramatic effect. Keith closed his eyes and sighed, trying to make his annoyance very clear.

“Shiro, Allura.” He gestured to his two friends, “Lance.”

The couple beamed at him, and Lance smiled back sheepishly.

“Lance.” He gestured to the boy, “This is Shiro and Allura.”

“Dude.” He looked at Keith seriously. “You never told me your friends are hot.” He turned to them. “Seriously, why do you hang out with him?” Lance whispered loudly.

Keith jabbed him in the ribs, the taller boy laughing as he tried to duck away, not noticing the tips of Keith’s ears slightly turning pink.

Shiro and Allura laughed along with him, obviously taken aback by Lance’s straightforwardness.

“So Lance,” Shiro began in an overly friendly tone, causing Keith to whip his head up to look at him, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “When does your game start?”

 _Oh no._ Keith knew where this was going. He didn’t like it.

Lance on the other hand, beamed at the question.

“Our game starts right before school ends! Another team is playing before us, we’re going up after them.”

“That’s great! We’ll be there!” Shiro beamed.

Keith stared at him. _We?_ He mouthed. That earned him a kick under the table.

Keith coughed to try to hide small ow he let out at Shiro’s kick. Lance looked at him quizzically, oblivious to what the two people in front of him were up to. “Ahem. Yes _we’ll_ be there.” Keith said, turning to Lance. His face had dropped a little, he almost looked a little worried, but then a smile slowly spread on his face. “Alright! I’ll keep an eye out. Get ready to be dazzled by my amazing skills!” Lance struck a pose, earning a giggle from Allura.

“Can’t wait.” Keith deadpanned. “Wouldn’t expect any less from the captain.” Keith said it teasingly, and turned to look at Lance’s reaction. He expected an affirmation of what he said, or maybe a playful jab. Instead his eyebrows were knotted and he looked like a deer in headlights. Okay, he totally was worried.

“Ha-ha yeah. The captain. That’s me.” Lance said it jokingly but there was very little humour. “Um Keith could I maybe talk to you-” A voice calling out Lance’s name interrupted him, and all four teens turned to look as another kid sporting the same jersey as Lance jogged up to them.

They exchanged a few words; it seemed like the coach needed to speak with Lance, and the two bid their farewells and walked away. Keith watched Lance’s back as he walked away, curious and slightly worried.

He caught Shiro’s eye and it looked like they were saying the same thing.

What had Lance wanted to say to him?

***

The second Keith’s last class of the day ended Shiro was there, seemingly teleporting out of nowhere. Keith should’ve anticipated this; he was planning on walking as slowly as possible to the bleachers.

It’s not that he didn’t want to see Lance’s soccer game, he didn’t want to see Lance in a soccer game; if that made sense. He wanted to support Lance but at the same time he felt like he couldn’t handle watching Lance play. He was weak to athletes.

Shiro dragged him bodily out of the classroom, shoving him the entire way through the hallway, down the stairs and outside across the parking lot to the bleachers. The game was already in session, but it hadn’t been that long. The opposing team - named the ‘Evergreens’ - was clad in none other than forest green, a stark contrast to the electric blue Lance’s team, the Lions, had on. Neither team had scored so far however a crowd slowly started to form; mostly players from other teams, friends of the players, and a small gaggle of girls, Keith couldn’t help but notice.

Shiro dragged Keith so that they were three rows up and dead center; very hard to miss if someone even glanced over to the bleachers. They sat on the side that was cheering for Lance’s team, surrounded by a few kids cheering for their friends. The ball was on the other side of the field, but that’s not where Keith’s focus was. He spotted a tall boy with short brown hair, and Keith could swear he was _glowing_ in the afternoon sun.

Lance was taking a momentary break; he had his hands resting on his thighs and was hunched over slightly as he watched the movement of the ball across the field. He was panting slightly but wasn’t too out of breath considering it wasn’t long since the game had started. Keith didn’t even deny that he was staring, taken aback by how good Lance looked in his soccer uniform. Suddenly Lance straightened out and ran a hand through his hair, and Keith had to look away for a moment, worried that somehow Lance would catch him staring.

When he looked back Lance was in the middle of the field, deterring a rival player who currently had the ball and was trying to move forward. Lance kept his eyes focused on the boy’s face, and not on his feet like one would expect. Keith couldn’t see very well from the bleachers, but the boy on the opposing team moved his head ever so slightly in the direction of his teammate, and Lance took that as an opportunity to move in steal the ball before the other boy even knew what was going on. He took possession of the ball, swiftly moving it in the direction of the opposing team’s goal. He expertly weaved through the flurry of opponents that were trying to stop him, zig zagging through them while keeping hold of the ball. Keith half expected him to act flashy, moving and jumping and twirling around. There was none of that; it was clear that Lance had a goal, and he was determined to see it through. There was no playful antics, no easy strides like during the hazy days of summer they spent together.

Keith had never seen Lance so _focused,_ it was a surprising change from how he usually was.

A defender slowed him down, keeping him busy and trying to steal the ball back. Lance wasn’t having any of it. He dribbled back and forth before faking left, breaking right, and then heading straight for the goal. As he was nearing it Keith could see slow down ever so slightly before swinging his leg and launching the ball towards the goal.

Keith tensed, not even realizing that he was on the edge of his seat and staring intently. He was so certain it was going to go in, but all of a sudden the goalie dived, his hand managing to swat the ball away from the net. The crowd let out a yell, echoing the disappointment that Keith also felt.

“Aw man!” Keith threw his arms up with a loud yell. “He was so close!” He glanced over at Shiro who didn’t say anything, and instead was smirking at Keith. That earned him a smack to the arm. Wordlessly they moved their focus back to the game, and Keith could see Lance jogging over to the bench, exchanging a few words with the coach. He looked upset, worry lines between his brows visible from where Keith was sitting.

Lance had his hands on his hips as the coach spoke to him; closely listening to every word nodding seriously while still paying attention to what was going on in the field. A girl holding a clipboard and wearing a jacket with Lance’s school emblem approached them, handing the boy a water bottle. The girl – presumably their manager, Keith guessed – had her hair tied up in a ponytail and said a few words to Lance, causing him to ease some of the tension in his shoulders. He was about to take a swig of his water bottle, but then stopped himself and handed it back to his manager. She smacked her forehead and looked apologetic and Lance brushed it off coolly. Keith remembered that it was Ramadan, and Lance was playing right now on an empty stomach. He went back to the field with a pat on the back from his coach.

Throughout the game Lance directed his teammates and encouraged them, stopping to help a player who had tripped and encouraging another that had the ball stolen from him. He was everywhere at once, even when he was switched out for another a player midway he still shouted encouragements from the bench, never once taking a break. Keith was in awe that Lance was managing to do so much while fasting; no one would be able to tell if they didn’t already know.

Before the first half was over the enemy team had managed to sneak in a goal while Lance’s team was distracted; preoccupied by a near collision of two players to notice the ball whizzing past the goalie.

The Evergreen’s rejoiced, patting each other on the shoulders and shouting in excitement right as the whistle to signal the break went off. The player who had almost collided with another looked visibly upset, and Lance clapped him on the shoulder and said a few words of what could only be encouragement. The other player retorted, eyebrows furrowing deeper. Lance turned him around and placed both hands on his shoulders and bent down to reach his eyes, looking at him seriously. He said a few more words to the boy before he nodded, earning him a ruffle of his hair. It didn’t take a genius to see why Lance was chosen as captain.

The Lions gathered around the bench, talking strategy and hydrating themselves during the break. Lance took this as an opportunity to scan the bleachers, his eyebrows going up when he spotted Keith. He waved excitedly and Keith waved back, feeling a pang of fondness at the other boy’s excitement. He moved to jog up to the two but was pulled back by a teammate, he glanced back, his face looking sorry before he huddled around with his team to discuss how to move forward and hopefully make a comeback.

The huddle broke off with a _1, 2, 3 Roar!_ and Keith could see Lance stretch slightly, his shirt riding up. Keith flicked his eyes away for a moment so he didn’t keep staring. Again. The scene he was greeted with when he glanced back was _worse,_ if that was even possible.

Lance has his head thrown back and was squirting his water bottle over his face to cool off. He then pulled up the front of his shirt to wipe off his face, flashing his stomach to the crowd. Keith couldn’t tell if he was doing that on purpose or not.

The group of girls huddled at the front giggled, and Keith whipped his head around to look anywhere but at Lance. This is _exactly_ why he didn’t want to come in the first place.

Shiro watched the scene unfold before him, chin resting on his hand and looking utterly bemused. It seems Keith’s agony was quite entertaining for him. That earned him another smack to the arm, one he took while laughing.

“Listen I’m just saying you really seem to like-“

“Nope. We’re not doing this.”

“But Keith”

“Nope!”

“Alright. But don’t blame me if I judge you hardcore while you look all starry eyed like that.”

Keith let out a noise of indignation, appalled that Shiro would suggest such a thing. He did admit that Shiro was probably right though. But he didn’t need to know that.

They turned their attention back to the game once the whistle sounded again, signalling that it had resumed. Both teams gave it their all; there were several times that both teams almost scored, but a defender or goalie stopped it at the last second.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, anxiously seeing where the game would go next. Every time something happened the audience would yell and cheer and react intensely. Keith stopped and looked around for the first time in a while and couldn’t help but notice how many more people arrived to watch the game, the bleachers overflowing to the point where kids were sitting on the grass in front of them. Keith flicked his eyes back to the game and noticed one of the Lions, number 34, was dribbling the ball towards the goal, avoiding other players that were rushing towards him. Keith could see Lance coming up from the side, somehow going unnoticed by the other defenders. All the attention was on number 34 who, after successfully getting past a defender, took a shot in the direction of the goal. The goalie saw it coming and dived to stop it, but didn’t notice that the ball wasn’t meant to go in the goal, and was instead being passed to Lance, who took advantage of the goalie being down to take a clean shot straight into the back of the net.

The crowd roared, Keith and Shiro even jumping up out of their seats and yelling. Lance turned around with his hands raised and let out a yell, running towards his teammates who all attacked him with hugs and messed up his hair.

Lance was surrounded by his entire team, they were all excited and jostling him back on forth, but for a split second his eyes were only on Keith. Their gazes met and Lance grinned, his face red and hair mussed; Keith was overwhelmed by the amount of emotion that surged through him and had to break eye contact. Not before returning Lance’s grin and giving him a thumbs up.

The game resumed shortly after that, the two teams giving it their all. The Lions had a player accidentally hit another, earning him a timeout. They switched out players and kept going, the Evergreens getting dangerously close to a goal before being shut out by a defender.

Lance was dribbling the ball away from an enemy player when he slipped and fall over, causing Keith to jolt. He got up immediately, taking a moment to brush off some dirt before regaining his focus. Keith was surprised by how anxious he felt in that split second where Lance fell, trying to push those thoughts out of his head before turning back to the game. He didn’t dare look at Shiro, who probably didn’t miss the gasp Keith let out.

One of the Evergreens launched the ball from across the field, and Keith looked away because no way he could score from that far. He couldn’t help but notice that Lance was slowing down slightly, the heat and fatigue starting to hit him. He was taking more frequent breaks and would rest his hands on his knees more, looking winded.

Suddenly a roar came from the opposing team, and to the disappointment to everyone around him, they managed to score a goal from across the field. Keith could hear Lance encouraging his teams, making sure they didn’t get too discouraged. “Don’t mind it! We got this guys!” He could hear him yell.

“He’s really good, I can see why he’s captain.” Shiro thought out loud.

“Yeah. I think Lance mentioned how he didn’t think he was the best player on the team.”

“Even if he isn’t the best player, he is definitely doing a good job keeping them together.”

“Is that advice from experience mister I’ve been captain for three years in a row?”

“Yes.” No hint of sarcasm there.

Keith left out a chuckle, both hating and respecting Shiro for his confidence. But as Shiro said himself, he was the king of ‘fake it till you make it.’

Keith could hear Shiro’s phone go off, and he saw the other boy take his phone out of his pocket.

“Allura?” Keith inquired. She had a meeting after school.

“Yep. Looks like she’s done, she’s heading over now to watch the rest of the game with us.”

Keith nodded, and prepared himself for Allura’s ‘cheering’. It didn’t matter what or who she was watching, the girl was pretty intense when watching sports. She famously once got asked to leave a bowling tournament for hurling insults at the other team.

She arrived shortly afterwards, while the two teams were at a stalemate, the Lion’s trying their best to even the score.

Shiro was filling her in on what happened up until that point when suddenly a cheer went through the crowd on their side. Keith looked up and noticed Lance hoisting a tiny number 15 in the air, and it was obvious that he was the one that scored. Allura jumped up and whooped, despite being there for a little over five minutes.

A whistle sounded when the Lions calmed down, signalling a timeout. The coach of the Evergreen’s had called it, most likely to re-evaluate their strategy and try to pull ahead of this tie.

The Lions’ coached exchanged a few words with his players, but it was mostly encouragement to continue what they were doing and do their best.  They took this timeout as a moment to relax, rehydrating and resting themselves momentarily. Lance sat down almost immediately, and Keith couldn’t help but worry if Lance was okay.

Lance looked over to the bleachers, his eyes searching for something. When they landed on Keith he waved him over, and walked over behind the bleachers, away from the crowd.

Keith jogged over to where Lance was standing, looking anxious.

“Keith-”

“Yo! You did so well! That first goal was so fucking cool dude! Like holy shit I can see why they chose you as captain-”

“Keith listen to me-”

Keith paused.

“I don’t think I can do this.”

“Wait what? Can’t do what? Are you too tired to continue? Yo if you can’t continue because you’re too tired tell your coach like it’s amazing that you managed to do this much-”

“No it’s not that.”

“Then what is it? What can’t you do?”

“Be captain. I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

Keith stared at him in surprise. That was _not_ what he expected to hear from him. It didn’t make any sense.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”  He said out loud. “What are you talking about?! You were great out there! You looked like a great captain!” Wait. Keith realized something. “Is this what you’ve been wanted to tell me since yesterday?”

“Yes. And I - I don’t think I can handle this responsibility. I crack under pressure I can’t –”

“Yes you can.” Keith didn’t even think about what he was saying, he just knew that Lance was being unnecessarily worried.

“No I can’t -” He looked distressed.

“ _Yes,_ you _can._ I saw it happen. You’re a good captain. Your team respects you. I could see that. They _chose_ you Lance. You just pretty much proved yourself out there during your first game as captain.”

“But I didn’t do anything different from what I usually do!”

“Then that makes it better! You’re a good leader without even trying! No wonder they chose you.”

“What if I let them down? I’m not the best player. I still don’t understand why they chose me.”

“If you let them down then you’ll have to deal with that when the time comes – but it hasn’t happened yet. And you don’t need to be the best player to be the captain. They obviously chose you because you’re the best leader.” He thought of what Shiro said earlier.

Lance paused, about to say something but stopped himself; unable to refute what Keith had said.

“Lance! Get over here! We’re starting soon!”

“Listen.” Keith grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye, mimicking what Lance had done with his teammate earlier. “You got this. Go get ‘em tiger. Or should I say _, Lion_.”

Lance tried to give Keith a look that said, _are you serious?_  but it was ruined by him laughing at the terrible pun. He shook his head and jangled his body, like he was trying to physically shake off all of his nervousness. Keith held up his fist and Lance bumped it, flashing a quick smile before running back to the field. He still looked nervous, but visibly less so than before.

After the timeout was over the two teams were back it at fiercer than ever, and several shots were made. After what felt like an excruciatingly long time, the Lions managed to slip in another goal, bringing the final score to 3-2.

The blue team rejoiced, yelling and shoving at one another once the final whistle sounded, all of the adrenaline pumping in them right now making them excited. They shook hands with the other team, patting them on the back and but still being respectful. He could see one of the Lion’s acting a little cocky toward an opponent and Lance walked over and clapped him on the shoulder, and Keith could see his teammate look sheepish and apologize.

Both teams went back to their respective benches to clear out to make room for the next match and from his seat Keith could see the Lions laughing and joking around with one another. He noticed Lance with his arm around the shoulder of their manager, and he said something to her which caused the other players around them to laugh and for her to smack him on the arm. Lance was definitely acting flirty, and it looked like the two got along well. Were they dating? Keith felt like he would know if that was the case.

Lance looked like he was in his element, surrounded by people who liked him and had a good time. Keith realized it was a stark contrast to himself, someone who avoided large crowds of people, even opting to join an individual sport. Seeing Lance like that made Keith feel like there was suddenly an invisible wall that sprouted up between them, and Keith couldn’t help but realize how incredibly different the two of them were.

Lance who was outgoing, energetic and well liked. And Keith, who was introverted, enjoyed being alone, but was also terribly lonely.

He felt a smack on his arm. “Stop brooding and go talk to him!” Allura yelled at him.

Keith was about to retort and say he wasn’t brooding, but Shiro had already pulled her away, leaving Keith standing awkwardly by the bleachers alone.

“Sorry gotta go do stuff see ya, bye!” Of course they really didn’t have ‘stuff’ to do but they would never admit that.

Keith stood awkwardly by the bleachers, debating whether or not he should go say hi but wasn’t exactly comfortable going to talk to him when he was surrounded by his teammates. There were too many people he didn’t know and even though he knew Lance it was still a daunting situation for him. Nothing was worse than trying to talk to a group of people that were all friends with each other when you only knew one person.

He was about to turn around to leave when Lance suddenly turned around, meeting Keith’s gaze again. A grin broke out on his face, and he used the arm that was around the manager’s shoulder to gesture Keith to come over. Keith nodded, giving a nervous smile. He could feel his heart beat pretty fast, out of nervousness; he hated meeting new people sometimes.

Keith walked up to them, and gave a quick wave to Lance. They were in a group of about five players including Lance, and all eyes turned to him when he approached.

Lance took his arm off their manager’s shoulders, instead putting the other around Keith.

“Guys, this is my friend Keith!” Keith gave a shy hello, trying not to turn red.

“Keith this is Mark, Raj, Brandon, Hiro and our manager Khadija.” He gestured to each of them in order, and Keith was met with a chorus of hello’s and hi’s.

“Is this the guy you said lived near you? Your running buddy?” Their manager – Khadija – asked.

Lance’s eyes went wide, like he wasn’t expecting that but laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, I’m surprised you remembered that.”

She looked at him mischievously and he nudged her in the side.

“Wow Lance, I didn’t think you had more than like two actual friends.” Number 12, Raj, teased.

“Ha-ha. I know ya’ll are just jealous because everyone loves me.”

“Mhm. Sure.” Brandon looked unimpressed.

“Listen, I’ve only known him since summer; I don’t know how anyone is able to put up with him for too long. You guys have my respect.” Keith decided to join in on the teasing.

“Keith!” Lance looked mock offended.

The other players burst out into laughter, Hiro offering him a silent fist bump.

“Well,” Khadija started, “I need some help moving some of the equipment, the four of you, help me.”

“Why just us?” Mark looked unenthusiastic. “What about Lance?”

“He’s fasting. Now stop complaining and help me.” She shoved them away from Keith and Lance, and Keith couldn’t help but wonder how someone so small had so much power. She and Lance shared a look as she shoved the boys away, like the two of them knew something others didn’t.

“Sounds like you’re popular.” Keith didn’t lay up on the sarcasm.

“I know, everyone loves me.” Lance said haughtily.

They stood like that for a little bit, chatting about the game and how it went. Keith trying very hard not to stare at Lance’s legs, which just confirmed his weakness to athletes.

“Oh!” Lance yelled suddenly. “I was going to text you but I figured I might as well tell you in person right now but.” He looked nervous. “My family is having an Iftaar party, it’s basically a party we have during Ramadan where we all break our fast together. It’s my family’s turn right now I was wondering if you wanted to come.” He knotted his hands together nervously.

Keith blinked at Lance, taking a moment to process what he said.

“Oh! Uh yeah! Sure!” Keith tried not to look too eager. “When is it?”

Lance gave a small smile. “On Saturday. You can come over earlier though around five, my family is going to come around six. Just warning you though, I have a million cousins.”

“Noted.” Keith smiled back.

“Great! See you then! Oh and Pidge and Hunk were supposed to come but Hunk has work and Pidge has a test to study for. I hope that’s okay.”

Keith felt a little nervous that he’d be the only non-family member there but he still nodded, trying to reassure Lance.

“Alright, I gotta go!” He gave Keith a fist bump and ran off, going to rejoin the rest of his team.

“So a party huh?” An arm suddenly draped around his shoulders. Keith looked at the culprit unimpressed.

“A _family_ party. I thought you two had stuff to do?”

“I never said that, Shiro did.”

“You know that was an excuse to just leave you two alone.”

“See that’s what I like about you Allura, you admit it.”

The two of them turned to give the approaching Shiro a look, and he held up his bag of chips like a white flag.

***

Saturday arrived and Keith was pacing in front of his mirror, trying to figure out what to wear.

“Keith.” Allura sounded exasperated. “Like you said, it’s a family party. Just wear something nice and go. It’s not that hard.”

“Okay, okay. But the red sweater or the grey?”

“The red.” Shiro gave Keith a deapan look. “It’s a good colour on you. Plus, Kaori got that for you for your birthday.”

“Okay.” Keith shrugged it on over his t-shirt. “Wait? What should I do with my hair?” He looked at them in a panic.

“Hai Allah.” Allura got up and grabbed a comb from Keith’s dresser, quickly fixing his hair up. “Your hair is long enough to tie it up.” She murmured, taking a hair tie from her wrist and tying a long part of Keith’s hair. She arranged the front of his hair to look nicer and turned him around.

“Good?” She asked.

“Yeah, good.”

“Wonderful. Now _go_. We’ve been here for two hours.”

“Yeah sorry. And thanks you guys.”

“No problem Keith. Now we’ll go on our date and you’ll go on yours.”

Keith gave Shiro a withering look. “I’d hardly consider a family party a date.”

Shiro laughed, and the three headed downstairs. Keith got dropped off at Lance’s house before the couple went on their date, the two wishing him good luck.

He walked up and rang the doorbell, hearing the pitter patter of small feel rushing to open the door. He half expected it to be Farhan again but the door opened to reveal Sadie, wearing a pink outfit embroidered with flowers, a light scarf around her neck and bangles adorning her wrists. She had her hair pinned back with a flowery clip and she was wearing a pair of dangling earrings.

“Hi Keith! How are you?” She excitedly pulled him in and closed the door behind him, practically jumping up and down. “Wait. Did you cut your hair?”

He smiled. “I’m good. And no, it’s just tied up see?” He turned to show her. She oohed. “How are you? Something sure has you excited.”

“Did you hear BTS’ new comeback?!” She practically screamed. “It’s so good!”

“No I haven’t yet! Is it really that good?”

She gaped like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She went on excitedly about her favourite member Jimin, and how wonderful he looked during the music video.

They were talking about which variety shows were their favourite when Lance came downstairs in his pajamas; he was fresh from a shower, his hair still damp. Keith tried to ignore how he smelled like flowers. He paused a little bit away from them, looking at Keith with his eyebrows raised.

“And now we see the k-pop fans in their natural habitat, fangirling over everything.” Lance said in an exaggerated Australian accent.

“Ha-ha Bhaiya. You’re just jealous that you’re not as cool as them.”

“Excuse you, I can sing.”

“Barely. And you can’t dance.”

“Yes I can!” He looked appalled. “So they sing and dance? So what? I can do that too. But they do all that other stuff.”

“Yeah.”

“Like act? And host?” He looked thoughtful. “Damn, never mind. I wouldn’t wanna be a k-pop idol, it sounds like so much work.”

Keith laughed. “Yeah it’s pretty rigorous.”

“Also, how are they all so pretty? I mean look at that one guy Sadie loves, his face is perfect!”

“Well there are like assigned roles in groups, like leader, main vocal, main dancer etcetera. One role is literally visual.”

Lance looked at him, hand on chin, he seemed to be analysing Keith’s face.

“Y’know, you could be in one of those groups. You got the face.”

“W-what? No! No way. I can’t even sing.”

“Can you dance?”

“Does learning k-pop routines in my free time count? I can only do the ones that are like really precise, I’m not elegant whatsoever.”

“Yes it does count. Now show me your moves, pretty boy.”

“So the new nickname of the week is pretty boy?”

“Yes. Now dance for me.”

“No thanks.”

“I wanna see!”

They both turned to look at Sadie, momentarily forgetting she was there. She looked at him with puppy eyes, it was hard to resist.

“Sorry kiddo, maybe next time.”

She pouted, obviously disappointed. “Okay but you have to show me next time, promise?” She held out her pinky. Keith looped his around hers.  

“Promise.”

“Alright, now I need to get ready. C’mon Keith.”

The two boys went upstairs and settled in Lance’s room; Keith could see Lance move over to grab his outfit from his closet.

Keith was looking at some of the posters on Lance’s wall when he saw movement over the corner of his eye. He glanced over to see Lance shrugging off his t-shirt, and he whipped his head around in the other direction, glancing at his phone to look busy.

“So uh,” He started trying to fill the silence. “What is that your younger siblings call you?”

“You mean Bhaiya?” Lance’s voice sounded muffled as he put his shirt on. “It means ‘older brother.’”

Keith was confused. “But what about what you call Ike? Doesn’t Bhaijan also mean older brother?”

Lance laughed a little at Keith’s pronunciation. “They both mean older brother. Bhaiya mean’s older borther but Bhaijan means like, grand supreme elder brother you feel.”

“Kind of?” Keith sort of understood.

“Also I like the hair. It looks good.”

Keith blushed, glad that he was turned around. He fiddled with his tiny ponytail, “Thanks.” He could hear Lance’s closet door close and he turned around.

Lance stepped aside and Keith could swear he felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs. How did he look so good in such a simple outfit?

He was wearing a traditional outfit, a long black shirt thing (he still didn’t know what they were called) similar to the ones his mom often wore, and that Sadie was wearing, and matching loose black pants. There was delicate gold embroidery around the collar that followed the three buttons on the front of his shirt. Around his neck he wore a light gold scarf that hung loosely. Gold was a good colour on him. That, combined with the black looked wonderful against Lance’s skin, and Keith had to quickly come up with an excuse as to why he was staring with his mouth open.

“So uh, what you’re wearing it – it looks nice. Yeah.” _Eloquent._ He thought to himself.

“Its shalwar kameez dude; to quote Ms. Marvel its _‘plus five to bling,’_ not so much to dexterity though. 

Keith snorted, “You got that right.” Still, he couldn’t help but love the way Lance looked.

“Wait, is that the superhero Sadie dressed up as for Halloween? The one with the lightning bolt?” Keith remembered the picture Lance showed him a little while ago of all of their costumes from the previous year. Lance went as Sokka from Avatar.

“Yep. Sadie _loves_ her.” He gave a small smile. “You should’ve seen her face when they announced her, she started crying.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, she was just so excited. She was like, ‘ _Ammi look! She looks just like me, a superhero that looks like me! And she’s Pakistani! And Muslim!’_ She was jumping up and down in joy. Sam and I pooled our money together and got her all the available volumes, a t-shirt and a couple of posters for her birthday.”

“Wow. You guys are so sweet.”

“Nah. That wasn’t anything special. We all do stuff like that to each other all the time. It’s just what siblings do.” He gestured around. “They got me all this X-Files stuff when I first got into it.”

“Must be nice.” Keith meant it earnestly, but when he saw Lance pause he realized how he must have sounded.

“I meant that! I’m just saying it sounds nice. Shiro does stuff like that for me. He got me a Blue Jays hat back when I first started liking them.”

“Do you actually like baseball, or is it because of Shiro?”

“A bit of both to be honest. It is a pretty interesting sport.”

“You know he can’t hear you, right?”

“What? I’m being honest!”  

***

Keith eventually said his hellos to the rest of the family. Sam was wearing black shalwar kameez with white embroidery and dark makeup. She looked nice. Terrifying, but nice.

Lance’s mom – Aunty, Lance kept telling him to call her, looked lovely in a tea rose patterned salwar kameez, hair up in a bun. She welcomed Keith warmly, complimenting his sweater and giving him a kiss on the forehead. Keith felt at ease around her. Farhan’s outfit was an off white colour, and his hair was still a messy mop on his head, no one daring to even attempt to fix it.

Ike, Mehr and Ayesha arrived first to help set up, all three saying hello to Keith. Ayesha however, was more interested in Luna, who was sleeping near a window in the living room. Ayesha plopped down on top of Luna, much to Mehr’s disdain, considering she wasn’t keen on cleaning all of the dog hair off her daughter’s clothes.

Everyone was bustling around, cooking, cleaning, setting up the table or getting ready themselves. Keith stood hopelessly in the middle of the living room, wanting to help but unsure how. It seems like Aunty read his mind, because she asked him if he could broom.

“Ammi!” Lance said disapprovingly. But Keith assured him he was happy to help.

The guests started to arrive shortly afterwards, several family members wearing similar outfits bringing food and desserts for everyone. Everyone hugged and were excited to see each other, complimenting outfits and exchanging stories since they last saw each other.

Lance introduced Keith to his family, and it was difficult to keep up with all the names and titles that everyone had. Everyone greeted him warmly, saying how happy they were that he could join them. Keith felt guilty that he forgot most of their names as soon as they met. It was easier to keep track of the names of his cousins; Lance joked how Pakistani families sometimes liked to make their kids’ names rhyme or be similar, and he wasn’t joking. He had two cousins named Jawwad and Fawwad and their sisters names were Fabiha and Maliha. Then there was his group of cousins who’s names all started with A; Ali, Ahmed, Asma, Abeera and Atif. Most of them were relatively the same age range, and all got along really well. They seemed like a huge group of friends that just so happened to know each other their entire lives.

Then there was the literal dozens of small children that were running around, and at the point Keith had given up, accepting his fate.

Lance was close to his cousin Ali, who was the same age as him. He was similar to Lance; outgoing and friendly, and hit it off with Keith right away.

The two were talking about their shared music taste, both agreeing that it’s been too long since Vampire Weekend released an album when Keith accidentally bumped into someone.

“Oh sorry!” Keith said immediately, turning around to meet a woman with possibly the curliest hair Keith had ever seen. She had a lot of it too, and it surrounded her head. She had the same hooked nose and upturned lips that Keith came to associate with Lance’s family, and he guessed that this was his infamous oldest sibling, Rosie.

She looked at him curiously, like he was an alien.

“ _Yeh kiska bacha hai?”_ Who’s kid is this? “Did someone adopt without telling me?” She gestured to Keith. It was hard to tell if she was joking, and Keith looked at her confusedly.

“This is my friend Keith, Baji.” He heard Lance explain from behind him.

“Heh? You had more than two friends? Mubarak ho.” She had a cheeky grin on her face. Yep. This was definitely Lance’s sister.

Lance made a face at her and moved to take Keith away, but Rosie had other ideas.

“So Keith,” She said casually, putting an arm around his shoulders. “How long have you been friends with Lance?”

“Um,” He started nervously. “Since the summer.” 

“That’s nice. I just hope you know that I care about Lance. So if he’s upset because of you, you’ll have to deal with me.” She gave a sickly sweet smile, patted him on the chest and walked away.

Why were all of Lance’s sisters terrifying? Except Sadie. He hoped she wasn’t secretly terrifying.

“Baji stop scaring my friends!” Lance protested. "I'm a better judge of character now." Kieth briefly wondered what  _that_ could mean. 

“Just looking out for you.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“You are to me.” She pinched his cheek, despite being a solid three inches shorter than him. Lance looked annoyed, but it was easy to tell he wasn’t really. Keith felt a pang in his chest; all of his siblings loved him a lot.

“Also Keith,” She turned to him. “Make sure you eat a lot today, you’re too skinny.”

“If I’m too skinny what about Lance?” He retorted.

“Touché.” She held her eyebrows up, impressed. “Make sure he eats too.” She said with a grin before going to say hi to one of their aunts.

“She’s an interesting one.” Keith laughed.

“Yeah, she’s the true matriarch of this family. Our parents were too nice to us, she made up for that.” Keith could swear he saw a flash of terror on Lance’s face.

The sound of the door opening cause the two boys to turn, Lance getting ready to greet whoever arrived.

“Assalamul-aikum” He started to say hello but paused, looking terrified at who came through the door. It was a family of four, a stern looking father with a receding hairline and thick rimmed glasses. He was very different than the rest of his family, his wife looking rather friendly and their two children looking nice as well. The father and his son wore white round hats, and Lance explained that they were called _topis_ which just meant hat, but referred to hats worn in the mosque as well. His wife and daughter wore hijabs, and their outfits were much more modest than the rest of the family’s. Lance quietly explained that that was his father’s sister, Momina phupho, her husband and their two children, Imran and Shireen.

Lance greeted his aunt and cousins warmly, but became stiff when he reached his uncle. He nodded and said hello, even adding a sir to the end of the sentence.

His eyes flicked over to Keith from over the top of his glasses, and he looked unimpressed. He reminded him of Professor Snape from the way he held himself, he wouldn’t be surprised if he talked like that too.

“This is my friend Keith, Asghar phupa.”

Keith looked between Lance and his uncle. He gave a sheepish, “Hello, nice to meet you.” He got a slight nod in return.

 _“Oh another ‘friend.’ I don’t think I’ve met the Chinese one. Is this one trying to be a girl? What’s with his hair?”_ He said in Urdu. Keith couldn’t understand what they were saying, but from the way Lance looked, he knew it couldn’t be good.

 _“He’s not Chinese, he’s Korean. My other friends couldn’t make it.”_ Keith could see Lance bristle.

_“Hm, the fatty and the tomboy couldn’t come? What a shame.”_

_“Their names are Hunk and Pidge and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about them like that.”_ There was an edge to his voice that Keith had never heard before. _“And Pidge is neither a girl nor a boy.”_

His uncle scoffed. _“Maybe you should care more about what people think of you and your family rather than your silly friends.”_

 _“I’m sorry you feel that way.”_ He was staring at the ground.

_“If you really did care, you wouldn’t have been so selfish. Honestly your father was too soft on you, he must have been out of his mind. And I had so much respect for him. If you cared about your mother, you’d go back to how things were.”_

Keith could see Lance ball his hands into fists, and he whipped his head up to stare at his uncle. It was more than obvious he was furious, but no one besides the three of them was around to notice. Lance started to breathe heavily and look like he wanted to say something, but held himself back.

Keith touched his arm softly, “Hey is everything okay?” He glanced at his uncle, who looked at Keith’s hand on Lance’s; his face contorting.

 _“Chi.”_ Disgusting.

Lance turned around and ran up the stairs, leaving a bewildered Keith behind with his uncle.

“He was always so sensitive.” He heard him say. “The world is going to treat him much worse than I am.” He walked off and talked to another relative, like he hadn’t just made his nephew almost cry.

Keith looked up the stairs, unsure if he should follow. His eyes met Sadie’s as he saw her approach him, and she looked worried.

“Hey, what happened? Where did Lance go?”

“He just went upstairs. Your uncle.” He gestured to the one in question. “Said something to him, I don’t know what it was but it must have made him really upset.”

“What?!” Sadie looked furious. “Why can’t he just chill?! I thought he’d stop with his mean comments.” She looked like she was ready to punch someone. Scratch that, all the Siddiqui sisters were terrifying.

“Can you go check up on him?” She asked before stalking off somewhere, ready to fuck someone up.

Keith rushed up the stairs and found Lance in his room, pacing back and forth, obviously upset.

“Why can’t he just ease up?” He asked no one in particular as soon as Keith stepped in. “It’s not my fault I’m this way. Why does he always have to bring up how much of a disappointment I am?! I already know!”

He was flailing his arms, his anger boiling over.

“Wait, what?” Was all Keith could say, but Lance wasn’t listening.

“Like my family accepts me, and no one else has a problem with it like – “ He was ready to explode. “It’s not even that big of a deal! I’m not your son why the fuck do you care so much!? Why do you have to cause all this drama?! You aren’t even related to us you married into this family. Plus! You don’t deserve Momina phupho like she is the sweetest person ever and you’re just an old fucking asshole! No one wanted you to marry her anyway.”

Keith tried to talk to him, but he was moving around too much.

“And why does he have to bring up my dad!? Like he was okay with it! What is this bullshit of, ‘oh and I used to respect him so much’ like how _dare_ you- “

Keith approached him carefully, placing his hands on his shoulders to stop him from pacing around and working himself up more. “Lance! Listen to me. Why did he say that stuff to you? What happened?”

“He’s just an asshole that cares too much of what other people think like, I get it,” He deflated a little. “Your kids are perfect, they get great grades, are religious, volunteer, etcetera.” He looked sad. “And I’m a fuck up that ruins our family name.”

“I doubt that’s the truth. I don’t know what you did but I doubt it was that bad.”

Lance looked discouraged. “It’s all cause I’m bi. I knew I shouldn’t have told anyone.”

“Wait what?” Keith couldn’t have heard that right.

“What?” Now it was Lance’s turn to look confused.

“What did you say?”

“I’m bi. Bisexual. Didn’t I tell you?”

“No.” Keith felt a weird mix of emotion. “No you didn’t.” It took a few seconds for what Lance had said to sink in, and Keith suddenly felt giddy. He pushed his feelings aside though, now was _not_ the time to be thinking about that.

“Oh.” Lance backed up. “I – I thought I did. Sorry, if it weirds you out like I – “

“What!? No! Lance. I’m gay. It doesn’t weird me out at all.”

“Wait what?!”

“What?!”

“Okay we need to stop saying what. But.” Lance paused. “You’re gay?”

“Yeah. I thought you realized. When we met, you asked me if I had a crush on Shiro!”

“I know I did but you said no so - I thought you were straight.”

“I’m the farthest thing from it.”

“I kinda pegged you the type to have like a really chic girlfriend or something. I guess I was wrong.”

“And I guess I should’ve known. You’re too much of a flirt to leave out boys from the situation.”

They met eyes for a split second before bursting out into laughter, the ridiculousness of the situation hitting the both of them.

“For real though.” Keith started once they calmed down. “Don’t listen to him. I know he’s family but if he’s the only one that says stuff to you, just ignore it. Be the better person cause he obviously can’t be. And it seems like he’s just trying to rile you up, don’t fall for it.”

Lance nodded.

“Seriously though dude.” Keith started. “I can’t believe you thought I was straight.”

Lance laughed. “I’m sorry dude. I should have known. You wear cropped jackets.”

Keith smacked him in the arm while laughing, but he couldn’t deny it.

“He says shit like that about everyone. Like if our parents are okay with it, then that’s all that should matter. Like he thought it was the goddamn end of the world when our parents let us date. We had to wear them down a little, but they agreed to it once we explained to them why we should be able to.” Lance started to explain.

“Like with Bhaijan it was okay, because Mehr was also Pakistani and Muslim, everyone accepted her pretty quickly. It also helped that she’s the sweetest person on the planet, but I digress. With Baji though, that took a little more convincing.”

“Why was that?”

“Cause her boyfriend was white. White and catholic.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.” Lance said, popping the p at the end. “Our parents met him and liked him, so it was okay. Plus his family wasn’t very religious, so he was okay with converting. His family is also pretty cool with us.”

“Is this the same person who’s now her fiancé?”

“Yep.” Lance confirmed. “Everyone else accepted it because our dad said it was okay. People had a lot of respect for him. Asghar phupa though, he freaked.” He huffed out a laugh. “Thought we were becoming too ‘western.’ He was all like, ‘how could you marry a _gora?_ You should marry a nice desi boy!” Lance scoffed. “She loves who she loves, no one else has a problem with it, so why should we stop her?”

Keith nodded agreeing with what Lance was saying. 

“Anyways, he always praised Baji cause she was the smart child, took care of the rest of us and was pretty religious for a while. But the second she dated a white guy, suddenly she was the devil spawn.”

Lance laughed, shaking his head at the ridiculousness. “Sorry for dragging you into this. My family has a lot of drama as you can tell.”

“It’s okay. If anything else bothers you, I’m here to listen.”

Lance nodded, appreciative.

The two went downstairs after a little while, joining the rest of the cousins in the basement. Lance’s cousins accepted him easily, with Maliha thanking Lance for bringing a ‘cute’ friend over. He blushed at that, and all the girls took to teasing him relentlessly. He talked some more with Ali about music, and he asked him if he could add him on Facebook later on. This lead to Lance butting in, complaining that even he didn’t have Keith on Facebook, and that he would add him after the party was over.

At first they were just hanging out, then one of Lance’s cousins, Fabiha, suggested they all play Cards Against Humanity, whipping out the pack out of seemingly nowhere.

There were some interesting combos, and Keith effectively used his favourite card - Bees? - and won the round. They had to shield the children that wondered downstairs from the cards to make sure they didn’t see anything they weren’t supposed to.

Halfway through the second round they all heard a loud screech from upstairs, followed by barking. It seems the younger children decided to play with Luna, hence all the running back and forth they could hear upstairs.

“Oh my god what time is it?” One of Lance’s many teenaged cousins, Ahmed, complained.

“It’s only six thirty dude.” His sister Asma replied. “Iftaar is at seven forty.”

Ahmed dramatically flopped over on the couch, groaning and complaining about his hunger.

“Hey bacho!” One of the aunties’ yelled at them from the stairs. “Come upstairs, we have a surprise!”

Everyone looked at each other curiously. “It better be biryani. I hope it’s biryani.” Abeera suggested.

“Dude,” Maliha replied. “It’s Rukhsana khala’s house. _Of course_ there’s gonna be biryani.” Keith mentally jotted down that Lance’s mother’s name was Rukhsana.

She let out a small _yes_ before following the rest of the kids upstairs.

The ‘surprise’ was that the aunties and uncles set up karaoke, with two of the aunties crooning along to ‘Hello’ by Adele.

Everyone was gathered in the living room, piled atop the couches, perched on chairs or settled on the floor around the flat screen TV and entertainment system. There had to be at least twenty to thirty people there, Keith guessed, but it was hard to tell with all the children running around.

His aunts sang along passionately to Hello, and it was kind of cute how into it they got.

Lance tapped him on the shoulder, and he followed him into the kitchen.

“Here, help yourself.” Lance gestured to the piles of food laid out before him.

“What no! I’ll wait until you guys can eat too. I’m not even that hungry.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to wait.”

“Yeah but I’d be a dick if I ate when everyone else couldn’t. I can last for an hour.”

“Alright.” Lance started before bursting out into laughter, and Keith looked at him in confusion until he glanced over at the living room.

Ali and Ahmed were singing along to what Keith could only guess was a love song. Ali stealing a scarf, - a ‘dupatta’ as Maliha explained to him earlier – and draped it around his head, asking bashful and shy while Ahmed serenaded him.

Everyone was laughing, the parents yelling at them for acting so silly but enjoying it as well. Lance’s Asghar phupa – whom Keith now referred to as Snape – looking disapproving; confirming his role of absolute killjoy.

Keith and Lance sat back down on the floor next to Sadie as the little kids sang along to an old song, doing a choreographed dance while they sang.

“They danced to this at Bhaijan’s wedding.” Sadie explained, leaning in so Keith could hear her better. “Everyone did a dance, it was a lot of fun.”

“Even Lance?”

“He was in practically every dance.”

Keith tried to imagine Lance dancing to Bollywood music, and it wasn’t that hard. He had a flair for the dramatic, so Bollywood suit him perfectly.

The next song started up, signalled by the first few chords of a guitar riff, and a loud resounding _ooooh_ went through the group. Ali grabbed the mic, holding it up to his brother, who refused it. He went along to the next person, who also refused it. Their mother grabbed the mic, getting ready to sing, when it was snatched away by another cousin, before finally being taken by Lance, who jumped in the middle once the song actually started.

_Main daalun taal pe Bhangra  
Tu bhi gidda paa le_

He danced along to the music, emphasizing each word. Lance wasn’t joking, he could sing.

  
_Chal aisa rang jamaa de hum_  
_Ke bane sabhi matwaale_

The mic was grabbed by Sadie, before Sam took it from her and joined Lance in the middle. Linking arms and dancing with him.

 _Mann kahe ki main le aaun_  
_Chaand aur taare saare_  
_Inn haathon par main chaand rakhun_  
_Iss maang mein bhar doon taare_  
  
Farhan jumped in as soon as Sam was done, grabbing the mic from her.

_Hello! Hello! tu floor pe kab hai aayi  
Ye lo, ye lo, badi solid masti chaayi!_

At every ‘hello’ Farhan jumped back, Sadie following him as he did so. At the end of his verse the two have a little shimmy. Suddenly, Lance jumped back in again, pinching Farhan’s cheeks as he took the mic.

 _Hello! Hello! Tu much hai tumne lagayi_  
_Ye lo, ye lo, control karo mere bhai!_  
  
He picked Farhan up and spun him around before handing him off to one of his uncle’s right as the song dove into the chorus.

 _Dhak-dhak dhak-dhak dhadke ye dil_  
_Chhan chhan bole Amritsari choodiyan_  
_Raat badi hai mastaani_  
_koi dilbar jaani kar le gallan goodiyan!_  
  
As soon as the chorus started Sam and Lance launched into a choreographed dance, and it was obvious that this was something they had done many times before. The two moved their hands perfectly in sync, jumping and twirling to the beat of the song. With a jolt, Keith realized that the rest of the family was dancing along, mimicking the movements Lance and Sam were performing in the middle.

The chorus repeated itself and Keith did his best to follow along, but it was too fast for him to keep up. Sadie tapped him on the shoulder and showed him the moves, so that the next time around, he’d be able to keep up.

“It’s kind of our family’s song.” She explained. “Everyone loves singing it when it comes on. We all know the dance.” Keith nodded in understanding turning his attention back to the two in the middle.

This time it was Ike’s turn to grab the mic, and he followed Mehr around with it.

 _Ye nain matakka tera, mujhe bada tadpaave_  
_Tu dekhe to ajj vi dilbar kudiye_  
_teer sa ek chal jaave_

Keith didn’t understand what he was saying, but it was a no brainer that he was serenading her.

  
_Kar de bin piye sharabi, chehra tera gulaabi_  
_Koi kyun na yamla ban jaave jo itni ho betaabi_

At ‘gulaabi’ he caressed her face fondly, and she pushed him away playfully while he looked love-struck.

 _Hello! Hello! dil dil se connect karna_  
_Ye lo, ye lo, ye baatein direct karna_

Ali had his turn at the mic, and he and Lance pushed and pulled Mehr and Ike towards and away from each other before shoving them aside as the chorus started up again.

This time Keith was ready and he performed the dance moves in time with the music. _Alright first there’s the shoulder shake, then you fist pump then you move your hands back and forth…_ He didn’t get it the first time but once the chorus repeated he got most of the dance down. Keith was absolutely focused on getting this right. So much so that he didn’t notice the sudden shift in the song.

There was a sudden break down in the song, the drum beat becoming more pronounced during this section.

 _Chana chanak tera pan dunga nak main to_  
_Chana chanak tera pan dunga nak_  
_Main kabootar phaseya ki hor koi_  
_Phase vi na haay phase vi na_  
_Phase vi na haay phase vi na_  
  
Lance, Ali and Ike were all in a circle in the middle, having a weird mini dance off their own that turned into them circling each other and doing ridiculous moves. The verse repeated and they kept at it, but once it was done Lance suddenly turned and grabbed Keith, pulling him into the middle of the circle.

He gestured to Keith to mirror his movements and went about doing exaggerated arm movements and flailing about, but Keith didn’t care and followed him anyway.

 _Chana chanak tera pan dunga nak main to_  
_Chana chanak tera pan dunga nak_  
_Main kabootar phaseya ki hor koi_  
_Phase vi na haay phase vi na_  
_Phase vi na haay phase vi na_

_Main kabootar faseya ki  
hor koi phase vi na.. _

Ahmed joined the circle then, pretending to whistle along to the song, and dancing about.

Somewhere among the chaos, Lance had managed to get a hold of the mic again and resumed singing the song.

 _Ye baat na maine jaani_  
_Kyun itni khush hai diwaani_  
_Tu mujhko aisi kahaani samjha de, samjha de.._  
  
He passed the mic over to Sam, who grabbed his hand and twirled him around as she sang.

 _Ye baat hai sabne chaahi_  
_Mile janmon ka humraahi_  
_Yahaan huaa hai kuch aisa hi_  
_Samjhe na samjhe na o ho.._

They continued with their choreographed dance, Lance taking a hold of the mic again.

_Ab main jaana keh rahi ho kya fasaana ho ho.  
Pyaar karne se bhi mushqil hai nibhaana ho ho_

Suddenly Rosie entered the fray, taking the mic and prancing around haughtily, making sure all the attention was on her.

_Hello! Hello! don’t mind mera yeh kehna  
Ye lo, ye lo, zara mere touch mein rehna_

The song launched back into the chorus and this time everyone who was standing did the choreography; it didn’t matter if they were in sync or not, everyone was having a great time.

 _Dhak-dhak dhak-dhak dhadke ye dil_  
_Chhan chhan bole Amritsari choodiyan_  
_Raat badi hai mastaani_  
_koi dilbar jaani kar le gallan goodiyan_

There was so much energy in the air and Keith couldn’t remember the last time he had this much fun. His entire family was singing and dancing along, everything was so good natured and high energy; Keith didn’t want this moment to end. He met eyes with Lance who grinned at him, taking the mic and shouting the chorus into his face as they danced.

The chorus repeated itself for a third and final time, ending with everyone throwing their hands in the air. There was a split second after the music stopped where everyone was just panting, trying to get a hold of their breath, before erupting into cheers. Everyone clapped and laughed, some even complimented Keith’s dancing. He felt so light; Keith made sure to document this in his memory forever.

Aunty interrupted them with the best news ever: it was time to eat. All the kids ran excitedly to grab food, but not before being scolded to go wash up before any of them was able to grab anything. They all took turns washing up before coming back and each grabbing a plate of food. Lance made sure to sneak some samosas for Keith, they were the first to go.

Everyone gathered around the living room with their plates of food, no one touching it yet as there was still a few minutes to go.

“How much time is left?” Ahmed asked, staring at his plate of food.

“Five minutes.” Jawwad replied.

“How about now?”

“Still five minutes.”

“Now?”

“Four minutes and fifty seconds.”

“Stop asking Ahmed and just wait!” Maliha snapped at him. He didn’t blame her though, all the food smelled absolutely delicious, and for someone who did eat during the day, he was ready to dig in. He couldn’t imagine how they felt.

A clock chimed somewhere in the house, and Keith could hear the sound of a recording; it was of a person reciting something in what Keith guessed was Arabic. Everyone went silent then, with the women moving to wrap their scarves around their head.

Once it was done, everyone murmured a prayer under their breath to break their fast, and Keith could see Ahmed literally inhale his food once he was done reciting it.

Keith took that as his cue to eat, diving in right away.

 _Holy shit._ He thought to himself. _This is so good._

“If I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life” Keith said over a mouthful of food. “It would be samosas.”

Imran looked at him for the first time that night, and held out his hand for a silent fist bump. Keith graciously accepted it.

Eventually everyone had to go pray, and Keith found himself with a few moments alone in Lance’s basement. He reflected on the night, surprised at himself that he didn’t feel awkward or out of place, even though he was the only non-Pakistani person there. Lance’s family made every effort to include him, and he appreciated it immensely.

The rest of the night went along smoothly, and Keith had somehow managed to become friends with the majority of Lance’s cousins. Eventually the time came for them to leave, and the families soon went back to their own homes one by one.

Once they had all left, Keith started to help clean up and Lance didn’t even try to stop him this time, knowing it was futile.

He didn’t see Aunty a lot during the night, so he took this time to go up and personally thank her for having him. She playfully scolded him for acting so formal, saying that he was welcome anytime.

To his surprise, she asked him how school and the track team was going, listening intently and asking questions. She praised him when he told her he had aced a test, and she even gave him one of the last sweets as a reward.

Keith wondered if this was it was like having a mom. He hoped he could feel this way often.

They cleaned up the plates and food and whatever else. Keith set to the task of brooming again while Lance did the dishes and Sam threw garbage away.

“Are your family parties always like this?” He asked her.

“Dude. This was pretty tame.” She said with a grin.

“Man, if this was tame, I’d love to see one that isn’t.” He joked.

“Then I guess you’ll have to come to another one.” She suggested. Keith thought the she was just kidding, but she looked serious.

“I guess I will.”

**

“I’ve never really had this, yknow; the feeling of being in family.” Keith admitted.

They were in Lance’s room, take a short respite after the cleaning they had to do and getting ready to send Keith home.

“Really? What about Shiro’s family? Didn’t you say that they basically considered you one of their own?” Lance countered.

“Yeah they do, and I appreciate it, really I do. I love them it’s just that - Shiro’s parents both work constantly. They’re out of the country a lot and the few times they are home is great but…Shiro himself even said that Kaori feels more like his mom then his actual mom.” He didn’t know why he was telling Lance all this, but he figured if he wanted to convey how grateful he was, he’d have to give Lance some context.

“That’s rough.”

“Yeah…they aren’t bad parents by any means, they’re just too busy to be there for them all the time. It’s complicated I guess. But I do know they cherish every second they get off, choosing it spend it with their family. Those times are rare though.

But you guys, aw man.” Keith couldn’t help but smile. “There’s just so many people all the time. And I don’t think I ever felt what it was like to have a mom till I met yours. Don’t tell her that.”

“Why not? She’ll basically adopt you at this point. Pidge and Hunk have also been integrated into the family, just saying.”

“You know, they almost adopted me.”

“What, who? Shiro’s family?!”

“Yeah, they were seriously considering it. I switched foster homes pretty often so I think they saw that and wanted to give me a real home. They were about to go start with the paperwork when I found out and stopped them.”

“You stopped them? Why?”

“I just, they were already so busy. They work nonstop to make sure Shiro and Kaori are doing okay, I didn’t want to add to their list of worries. Keith smiled sadly.

 Adopting a kid is a long and time consuming process, time that they didn’t have. Plus, I still felt a – wall, like no matter how much they cared about me I was still a guest. Separate. They were always nice, like ridiculously nice. I don’t like that. They never let me help clean up or anything. I would purposely do things to make them mad and they would just smile, shake their head, and say it was okay. That no matter what happens, Keith’s had a sad life so we have to be nice to him. I didn’t want that. I wanted to feel like I belonged, but I didn’t.”

He felt a pang in his chest. He should’ve been used to the feeling by now but all the time he spent with Lance and his family made that sad feeling even more pronounced and uncomfortable.

“I said I was grateful but politely turned them down, I had started working anyway, and was saving up to live on my own. Shiro was so mad.” Keith huffed out a laugh. “You should have seen him. We got into a big fight. It was the first time he yelled at me. I just – they’ve already done so much for me, I didn’t want to be a burden – “

“You’re not a burden Keith.”

“What – but I – “

“Your existence isn’t a burden.”

“Lance, stop – “

“You’re not.” And then softly, “okay?”

Keith looked away and nodded. “But Lance – “

“Okay?”

“Listen.”

“I’m not going to listen because whatever you’re going to say isn’t true.”

Lance hugged him then, suddenly and very tightly.

Keith hugged him back, suddenly overcome with emotion.

“I’ve just – I’ve never felt like I _belonged,_ y’know.” He could feel the tears coming. Keith figured that he had cried more times in the short amount of time he’d known Lance then the decades long friendship he had with Shiro. “Like I don’t have a family, nobody wanted me and the people who did felt like they were doing it out of pity and I don’t blame them I just want somewhere where I can feel like I should be there; that I’m a part of whatever is happening. I’m only Korean in name, like I barely know the language or the culture, so whenever I would be other Korean’s I felt a gap and it’s just the worst and I just wanna have someone accept me for just being me.” He knew that he was rambling and not making much sense, but Lance was listening nonetheless, comforting him while he tried to hold back his tears.

“That’s why,” Keith moved to look Lance in the face, “I appreciate you guys a lot. I feel like I belong. Like this is gonna sound weird but it made me so happy when your mom forced me to do chores. It was like she was treating me like any other of her children. So thanks for that.”

“Like I said dude. She’s basically adopted you at this point.”

***

When Keith went home that night, he had several pending friend requests on Facebook.

He accepted all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woooooooooo that was something huh HAH  
> aight so the song in this chapter was Gallan Goodiyan from the movie Dil Dhadakne do (A1 MOVIE WILL RECOMMEND VERY GOOD) the fam literally does the exact thing from the mv i suggest listening to it while reading will improve ur experience yas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEdTq3j-0U enjoy ALSO IT CUTE BC THE MAIN CHARACTERS FROM THIS MOVIE ARE BRO AND SIS LIKE LANCE AND SAM YAY  
> also my fam lITERALLY DOES THIS AT FAMILY PARTIES WE'RE SO EMBARASSING  
> ALSO ALLURA IS EGYPTIAN DID I MENTION THAT? I THINK I FORGOT TO SO THERE U GO  
> i VE HAD 2 HOURS OF SLEEP  
> ALSO THERE BE GRAMMER ERRORS PLS LET EM KNWO BC I EDITED THIS LIEK ONC E  
> im just real tired and i wanna put this outt ehre this is an important chapter for me cause its one of the first things i thought of in this au  
> night  
> NEXT CHAPTER: SPOOPY HALLOWEEN TIME AW YISSSSSSSS MOTHERFUCKER


	7. baseball games and the great escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spooky scary skeletons send shivers through your spineeeeeee  
> Aka the gang goes to an escape room. Other stuff happens but that's mainly it.  
> Enjoy.  
> Also before you ask, yes there are references to Scooby Doo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY THIS IS LIKE 14 DAYS LATE LMAO WADDUP YALL  
> lsiten its FINALS WEEK OK  
> school is and will always be kicking my ass. but plz enjoy.  
> also how the fuck do u write escape rooms like ive been to three and i still dont know but ye if u get the chance def go to one!!  
> Lance's birthday was supposed to be included in this chapter but that would've taken wayyy to long so the next chapter it is yay!  
> aight u know the drill if theres any inconsistencies or grammatical errors holla at ya girl

 

"… _mmfh hullo_?"

"He’s bi."

"Whuh? _Who’s leaving_?" A yawn.

"No Listen. He’s _bi._ Lance is."

 _"Whereshegoin’?_  " He could hear rustling. "Keith s’one in the mornugh…"

"Oh my god Shiro. Lance is _bisexual."_

"Oh. S’nice. Very nice."

"…"

"Wait. Oh _."_ Keith could swear he heard the gears turning in Shiro’s head. " _Oh!"_ There was shuffling on the other end, Shiro had likely sat up.

_"Yeah."_

_"Dude."_

"Yep."

"That means…"

"Uh-huh."

"Congrats. You’ve found yourself a boyfriend."

"Well not yet. And I’m not aiming for just that either! It’s just a possibility. An actual possibility now. I still need to figure out my feelings first though. To be honest, I don’t know if us being a thing is gonna happen. But still, it’s nice to have a friend that understands me."

"I know I’m like the best ally," The sarcasm was real in Shiro’s voice. "But I don’t fully understand what you’re going through all the time. So yeah, that’s nice. And hey! At least you’re not pining after a straight guy."

"Yeah. That never goes well." He murmured, going quiet for a moment.

"But that’s awesome dude!" Shiro perked up.  "Wait, how do you know? Did he tell you?"

"Yeah. The circumstances leading up to it weren’t the best; but yeah he told me at the party."

"What happened?"

"Some of his family, well more like this one specific uncle, gives him shit for it. He’s out to his family from what I can tell."

"Oh damn. I guess it’s a blessing and a curse. Also it can totally happen Keith, you’re a _great_ catch. How was the party by the way?"

"Sure." Keith chuckled. "And it was a lot of fun! His extended family is equally as energetic as his immediate family. They all enjoy singing and dancing. Karaoke was a blast."He didn’t want to mention it, but Lance’s family was another one of the reason’s Keith was a little scared to consider dating him.

"I hope you realize this now though." Shiro paused. "That the teasing is only gonna get worse."

"Shiro no."

"Wait till I tell Allura."

"Oh dear god no. You _wouldn’t."_

"Already done."

"Shiro!"

Keith’s phone suddenly buzzed several times in succession in his hand.

" _What have you done?"_

"You’ll thank us later."

"No I won’t."

"Trust me you will." Another yawn. "Also goodnight. I have baseball practice tomorrow, gotta get up early."

"Alright sorry for waking you."

"Don’t be sorry. I’m happy for you. Even if it is just a possibility."

"Thanks Shiro."

"‘Course, you’re mah buddy," He sounded sleep drunk. " _IluhveyhouKeith_."

"Alright go to sleep." And a muffled. "Love you too."

"Night night."

"Goodnight."

***

October swept itself in with a dip in the temperature and a flurry of colourful leaves. Coats were brought out and mittens were scavenged from the back of closets, the shortening days bringing chilly evenings quicker.

Practice was still in full swing for Keith, even if the track and field season didn’t start until the spring. The same went for Lance, his team played several practice games but the real season started in April.

After the party Keith had taken his time checking out Lance’s facebook, laughing at the scrawny middle school version of Lance with his oversized graphic t-shirts and mop top. Keith cycled through the pictures on Lance’s profile. It was like a more recent version of the wall of pictures in his house; birthdays, family parties, soccer teams, and vacations.

Keith flipped through the album titled _Ike’s Shaadi,_ which revealed itself to be pictures from his wedding. Everyone was dressed extravagantly, decked out in bright colours and heavy looking jewellery. It looked like there were several different parties, because the pictures weren’t just from the wedding day itself. Keith recognized Lance’s basement, except it was decorated with bright sheets and cushions. There were pictures of Lance’s family all sitting on the floor around someone playing a drum, everyone laughing and singing.

The pictures from the wedding itself seemed less eventful than the other parties, there were mainly pictures of various family up on stage with  the bride and groom, people sitting at tables and Lance somehow managed to be in a large number of them, photobombing in the background.

Keith was taken aback by how amazing everyone looked, especially Mehr. She was clad in a deep red wedding gown, with gold embroidery and matching gold jewelry. All the women’s hands were covered in intricate designs, and all the men wore suits with matching red ties.

Even Lance, who was at the height of his awkward thirteen year old phase looked adorable, smiling widely in every single photo. There were several pictures of him with huge white flowers in his hair, around his wrist and just everywhere. The pictures eventually transitioned into the ceremony, there was an old man with a big white beard talking to the bride and groom, all of a sudden everyone was outside and crying. The couple got into a car with a Just Married! sign hung up at the back, waving goodbye to the camera.

Keith was about to close the tab when something caught the corner of his eye.

 _Birthday: November 3rd._  

Keith glanced over at his calendar. That was in a month. In a couple of weeks.

“Shit.”

***

“Je vee-ander-ay demain?”

“Oh my god your pronunciation is horrible. How did you pass middle school French?”

“My teacher was ninety and just made us listen to old Parisian music. That’s how.

“Alright. Repeat after me: ‘Je viendrais a la marché demain si j’avais le temps.’

Lance attempted to mimic Pidge’s accent, but failed miserably. French was never his forte.

“Listen I can barely speak English, how do they expect me to learn another language?”

“Lance. We’ve been learning this since like the fourth grade.”

“Not me, remember.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Still.” Hunk butted in, stroking a sleeping Luna in his lap. “You also skipped half of French class last year.”

“Shh. No one needs to know that.”

Pidge looked at him pointedly.

“Anyway.” Lance said in the loud voice he had when he didn’t want to talk about something. “Who’s hungry?”

“Lance we just ate. Also shh!” Hunk gestured to Luna. “She’s sleeping.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “My stomach is a bottomless pit. I thought you were aware of this.”

“How could I forget?”

They chatted for a little bit while they studied. Hunk keeping Lance from getting too distracted.

“Yo,” Pidge nudged Lance. “You going to Halloween Haunt this year?”

Lance drooped. “Nah, Ike’s busy, Sam’s going with her friends and there’s no point in asking Rosie cause when is she ever free; and I know you guys don’t like that stuff.” He turned to Pidge. “Why?”

“Just wondering. I wanted to go see that new animated movie in theatres, so I just wanted to know when you’d be free.”

“Aight.”

“Oh!” Hunk piped up suddenly. “I almost forgot.” He turned to Lance. “What do you want for your birthday?”

“A Porsche.”

“Lance be serious.”

“I am.”

“Lance.”

“You don’t have to get me anything. It’s not a big deal.”

“Now’s not the time to be modest dude.” Pidge kicked him from their spot in his office chair. “What do you want?”

“Ow!” Lance rubbed the spot Pidge kicked. “You guys seriously don’t have to.”

They both looked at him. Even Luna, who had roused herself from sleep, turned to stare at Luna.

“Alright, alright. How about this – whatever you get it better not be expensive.”

“No guarantees. I’m totally buying you a like, a house.”

“Actually that would be great. Make sure it’s big with a nice kitchen. My mom likes nice kitchens.” He scratched Luna behind the ears. “And a big backyard for this one. You need space to run around don’t you?” Luna barked in response.

“Noted.”

**             

Keith shielded his eyes from the sun, regretting not bringing a hat or a pair of sunglasses. He squinted from his place on the bleachers; it was a little chilly and he was also regretting not bringing a long sleeved shirt or sweater; it was sunny, he didn’t expect it to be cold. It was October though, so he should have figured. He hated the cold.

Keith was hunched forward, hand on his chin and not doing anything to hide his boredom. Not much had happened yet and the game was progressing slowly. Shiro’s team, the Royals, were batting, and Keith watched as one of his teammates stepped up to the plate. The player’s brown hair was squashed under the helmet, and Keith wondered how they could see under those things. Neither team had scored so he hoped this was the moment that at least _something_ happened.

The batter swung once, missed, and the ref called out strike. Another swing, this time it connected, but the ball went off to the side, earning a foul. Third time seemed to be the charm, as the batter managed to hit the ball clean through the air, going over the heads of the infielders. He bolted towards first base, and managed to make it to second before the ball was sent back home.

The crowd cheered and clapped, and it was the most exciting bit of action that happened so far. Keith glanced over at the scoreboard, it was only the third inning.

He groaned. He didn’t hate going to Shiro’s baseball games, but he did hate waking up before noon on a Saturday; _especially_ when it was cold. He was tired and grumpy and the unexciting game wasn’t helping. It would have been better if Allura was here, but sadly she was busy and so Keith was dragged out there alone. At least Shiro had promised to go shopping for Lance’s birthday present with him later.

A cheer suddenly rang out after Keith heard the telltale _thunk_ of the ball making contact with the bat. Keith realized that Shiro was the one that was batting, and basically guaranteed his team a home run every time he was up.

The brunette player that was on second sprinted towards third, and Shiro followed up. The outer fieldsman stumbled and dropped the ball, and both Shiro and his teammate ran towards home, pulling their team two runs ahead of the other.

The crowd cheered, and the rest of Shiro’s team patted him and the brunette on the back. Keith squinted towards the dugout, trying to make out the face of Shiro’s teammate that helped him score, but he couldn’t see them clearly from how far he was. Keith shook his head, there’s no way it could be who he thought it was.

The rest of the team went up to bat, but three outs later they switched. Shiro’s team was up to three runs before they had to defend. Shiro was their ace pitcher; he was always launching the ball past the batter before the other team even realized what happened. Keith could see Shiro lining up to throw, shaking his head once then nodding, a grin on his face as he threw a curveball.

“Steee-rike!” The umpire called out, and that was the third out for the rival team. The opposing team managed to sneak in two runs during their time batting, and everyone was determined once their time to bat was up again.

He and the catcher made a pretty good battery, Keith thought. The catcher was able to make good calls and Shiro delivered, forming a strong foundation for the team. What was the catcher’s name again? Mark? Mike? Keith couldn’t remember.

After the fifth inning Shiro’s team pulled ahead by a few more runs. The other team managed to get one more, but the game ended with the Royals winning by four runs.

Keith made his way to the dugout to congratulate them, but almost tripped and fell once he got there; thoroughly confused by what he was seeing.

The catcher had taken off their mask, and before him was…Pidge? No not Pidge. The person in front of him was taller, obviously older and had broader shoulders.

Keith didn’t realize he was staring until Shiro waved a hand in front of his face, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Earth to Keith. What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Or a doppelgänger.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Keith mumbled.

Not-Pidge came up to them then, congratulating Shiro on his throws and the three runs he got for the team.

“Oh Keith! This is Matt, you remember him right?”

Matt. That was his name. Keith remembered meeting him earlier, but it had slipped his mind. No wonder Pidge seemed so familiar at first.

“Um, do you have a younger sibling?” Keith blurted out.

“Well hello to you too.” Matt chuckled. “And yeah, why?”

“Oh my god you look exactly like Pidge.”

“How do you know Pidge?” Shiro asked, turning to stare at him. 

“How do _you_ know Pidge?” Keith retorted.

“They come to like, practically every game. I’ve met them multiple times.”

“Oh. They’re friends with Lance, that’s how I know them.”

“You’re friends with Lance? And you’ve met Pidge?” Matt seemed surprised.

Suddenly Matt let out a yelp as someone tackled him from behind. “Nice job out there!”

“Speak of the devil.” Shiro chuckled.

Pidge peeked their head from around Matt’s torso to peer up at the people in front of them, eyes going wide when they noticed Keith.

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“Pidge, meet Keith. My pseudo-brother.” Shiro joked.

“Wait you mean the person you were so upset about when you first met Lance was _Shiro!?”_

Keith huffed. “Your point?”

Pidge didn’t say anything, and Matt laughed. “Small world isn’t it?” He joked.

“Yeah seems like it.” Keith agreed.

“Hey, I just remembered something.” Matt suddenly perked up. He turned to Pidge. “Remember you bought one extra ticket to that scary escape room but I can’t go because I have work?”

“Yeah…” Pidge didn’t follow along. “It was gonna be me, you, Hunk, Lance and Sam. Well not Sam because she’s going to Halloween Haunt instead. What about it?”

“Well that means you have three extra tickets doesn’t it?” Matt turned to Shiro and Keith, gesturing to them. “I found your extra three people. Shiro, would your girlfriend be up for it?”

“What exactly is an escape room?” Shiro asked, head tilted.

“It’s basically like a series of locked rooms where there’s puzzles and stuff and you have to solve them to progress. Usually they have a theme that goes along with the puzzles and the decoration for the rooms. Like I went to one where we were adventurers stealing a treasure and we were trying to get out before we got caught. It was awesome.” He explained.

“What’s the theme for this one?” Keith asked, he heard the word ‘scary’ earlier, and wasn’t too keen.

“Dunno. Pidge won’t tell anyone. I just know it’ll be scary.”

“Oh, yeah. In that case she would _love_ that.” Shiro said without hesitation.

“Perfect!” Matt beamed. “At least those tickets won’t go to waste.”

Pidge pouted. “But I wanted to go with you too!”

Matt smiled down at them, ruffling their hair. “Sorry kiddo, maybe next time, ‘kay?”

“Alright.” Pidge wasn’t pleased.

“Don’t worry Pidge,” Shiro tried cheering them up. “You can see Keith almost cry. He can’t stand horror.”

Keith sputtered. “That’s not true!” But his protests were lost over the laughter of the other three.

***

“What about this?”

“Nope.”

“This?”

Keith shook his head.  

“Jeez Keith you’re buying him a birthday present it shouldn’t be this hard.”

“I just want to get him something nice!”

Shiro sifted through the rack full of sweaters trying to look for more possible presents for Lance. Eventually they gave up on the clothing department, moving along to other parts of the store.

“Well do you know what he likes?” Shiro asked, glancing at the back of a cookbook he pulled off of a shelf.

“Uhh,” Keith was slightly ahead of Shiro, flipping through a brightly decorated journal. “He likes soccer? Anime? The X- Files? Beyoncé?” Keith listed off the things Lance talked about the most. “But he already has a lot of stuff for things he likes I wanna get him something nice.” Keith scanned the aisles for something that he could give him.

“Well is there anything that’s like, I don’t know, special to him? You don’t need to go all out to get him something he’ll appreciate.”

Keith paused for a moment, thinking. “He likes…space?” He recalled one of their conversations from the summer. “He and his dad both did. They bonded over it. He can name like a bajillion constellations. But what could I get?” Keith gasped. “I could get him a telescope!”

“Dude, do you realize how much those things cost? You need to eat.”

“Not when I have Kaori to shove food at me.”

“True. But still.”

Keith was looking through a collection of small notebooks, ready to give up when he saw that they were either too plain or too fancy, when one caught his eye. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands.

The notebook was slightly smaller than average, which made it easy to carry around. It was a deep blue with gold designs, the cover depicting a sun in the middle surrounded by small planets. The cover was framed by swirls and other celestial looking designs also in gold; and the spine had a column of planets going down it as well. A blue satin ribbon poked out of the top between the pages.

He flipped through the pages; they weren’t lined but each on had a different constellation illustrated in the corner.

Keith knew Lance would love this, but it couldn’t be the only thing he got him. He held on to the notebook looking around for something else.

Keith furrowed his brows. Hey Shiro I found this,” He held up the notebook as he kept scanning the shelves. “What else should I get him?” He was met with silence.

“Shiro?” He turned around, but his friend was nowhere to be seen.

Keith craned his neck, scanning the aisles for the purple baseball cap Shiro was wearing.

“How about this?” A voice said from behind him.

Keith turned around and took in what Shiro was holding. He gave the other boy a confused look.

“That’s it? What’s so special about it?”

Shiro turned the box around, showing Keith the reason he should buy it. His eyes went wide.

He grinned. “It’s perfect.”

**

“I hate the cold.”

“I know Keith. You’ve said that ten times already.”

“Cause it’s too goddamn cold for October.” Keith shoved his hands in his jacket pocket, huddling into it like a small nesting animal. He brought a pair of gloves and a beanie for good measure.

He reached for the heater but Shiro slapped his hand away. “Oh my god I am literally sweating over here, just turn the seat warmer up.” 

Keith huffed, turning the dial for the seat warmer up two notches.

They were on their way to The Great Escape, an escape room that offered several different types. Pidge decided to choose the scariest one that also happened to be outside in a building behind the main one. It was the evening time, and the sun had already gone down much earlier. Keith was riding shotgun as Shiro drove, Allura dozing off in the back seat after a long day.

“Alright,” Keith started, interrupting the pop song playing on the radio “Let’s go over the plan again.”

Shiro groaned, thoroughly unamused. “We’ve gone over it like twice already, don’t worry; I got you.”

“Just making sure, I don’t want to look like an idiot in front of Lance.”

“Rest assured Keith, you’ve probably already done that.” Shiro said matter-of-factly.

Keith smacked him on the arm and Allura piped up from the back seat that the three of them dying because of Keith’s embarrassment was a terrible way to go. Keith murmured an apology and slumped in the front seat.

“Shiro, the plan.”

“As soon as we get there I let you hold on to my arm. If you scream, I say it was me. If I see anything that might scare you, to cover your eyes. Also tell you the answer to any super hard puzzles.” He turned a corner. “Good?”

“Good.”

He hated scary things. Despised them. He never understood the reasoning people had for going to scary movies or haunted houses. Why did they enjoyed feeling like they were gonna get murdered any second? He liked puzzles, but not under the circumstances that that this particular one was going to have.

“It’s cause of the adrenaline!” Shiro argued, but Keith was having none of it.

“Nope. I don’t get why a really high heart rate and a feeling of dread is fun.”

“Don’t you get like, a high when you run?”

“That’s different.”

“Same principle.”

“Don’t desecrate the sacred art of running by comparing it to people getting the shit scared out of them for fun. I am insulted.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Always the drama queen.” He said jokingly.

Keith stuck his tongue out at him, turning to stare out the window. 

Despite his complaining, he couldn’t say no when Matt suggested it, considering Lance would be there. Also, this was Pidge’s early birthday gift to Lance, because apparently he loved this sort of stuff. _Of course he did,_ Keith thought. He always wanted to go to an escape room considering they always sounded like so much fun, but not one that would be terrifying.

Ignoring his hate of all things horror Keith agreed to go, mostly because it was for Lance’s birthday, and also because there was no way Shiro and Allura would let him skip out. Keith made sure to wear his favourite jacket which Shiro thought was kinda dorky, but Keith stood by his decision. It was surprisingly warm, despite being cropped.

They parked across the street from the where they were supposed to go, because there was no parking lot nearby and ‘no way in hell am I paying twenty bucks for two hours of parking’ was Shiro’s argument. Keith complained the entire walk there, and Allura shutting him up by wrapping her giant blanket scarf over him, like a cape.

“There,” She said when she finished putting it on him, “better?”

“I’m drowning in wool but yes.”

The six of them agreed to meet at the entrance of the room, which nestled out of the way in a woodsy area behind the main building that housed the regular, non-scary escape rooms.

“Does everyone have their tickets?”

“Yes dad.” Keith deadpanned, and Shiro adjusted his scarf as to further emphasize Keith’s point. “Ugh don’t play along,” Keith swatted Shiro’s hands away, “It ruins the joke.”

“That’s exactly why I do it.” He said. Keith could swear he saw a sly smile on Shiro’s face.

He was about to retort when the employee at the front desk asked. The three were rung through and set off for the trail that led to the room.

“Is it a pumpkin?” Allura inquired, staring at the stamp on the back of her hand.

“Yeah, it looks kinda sad though.” Keith looked at the lopsided jack-o-lantern with pity. “Why do we need to go through this sketchy path though?” He surveyed his surroundings warily. They were currently following signs for the ‘Haunted Haystacks’; an arrow leading them to a dirt path stemming from an opening in between a few trees.

“Aw c’mon Keith, I thought you liked the woods.” Shiro teased.

“Yeah during the day where I can actually see shit.” He huddled closer to Allura, still wrapped in her scarf.

“There it is.” Shiro pointed to where the trail ended, and Keith could see a few people milling about.

“Aw no.” Keith didn’t like what he was seeing. “Aw _fuck_ no I am not going in there.”

“Keith.” Shiro sounded exasperated. “It’s supposed to be scary; what did you expect?”

“It’s a barn!” Keith gestured to the structure wildly. “It’s a motherfucking _barn_! You know what that means?!” He didn’t wait for their response. “Scarecrows!” He was still flailing. “Motherfucking _scarecrows!_ You know I couldn’t finish the Wizard of Oz because the scarecrow was creepy as hell.”

“One, he was not.” A voice next to them said. “And two, seriously dude? You were scared to finish the Wizard of Oz?” Keith recognized Lance’s lanky figure in the dark, his face distorted by the shadows; the yellow light from the streetlamp emphasizing the creepy atmosphere.

“They have soulless eyes!” Keith countered. “Plus, I was seven and easily frightened okay?”

“Still are to be honest.”

“ _Can it_ , Shiro.”

“And third,” Lance gave Keith a once over, “That is definitely an…interesting fashion statement.” He looked amused.

Keith stared at him blankly before he remembered he was wrapped in Allura’s pink and blue plaid scarf. He snuggled in in deeper. “It’s warm.” He said, his voice muffled by the fabric.

“So is it universally agreed that Keith is the butt of every joke.” Hunk teased.

“Nah that’s Lance.” Pidge added, coming up from behind Lance.

“It’s cause it’s so much fun!” Allura ruffled Keith’s hair; and he glared daggers at her. Hunk gave her a silent high five.

While Allura and Shiro introduced themselves to Hunk and Pidge, Lance pulled Keith aside, dropping his voice low.

“Hey dude, are you seriously okay with this? You didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to. It’s not a big deal.”

“Oh.” Keith tried to ignore how cute Lance looked when he was worried; eyebrows furrowed and _oh my god he’s pouting_ Keith noted in his head. “It’s fine dude. I’m just being dramatic. I’ll be fine.” He tried to give a reassuring smile. Lance wasn’t convinced.

Keith put his hand on Lance’s arm to reassure him further, but it just caused Lance to tense; he stared at Keith’s hand owlishly for a few seconds. Keith hesitantly pulled his hand back, and forced a smile. “But yeah, you don’t need to worry.”

“Alright.” Lance said after a beat.

They joined the rest of their friends; Allura was in the middle of recalling a haunted house she went to where blood literally splattered everywhere, drenching the people inside. Hunk looked horrified while Pidge looked like it was the best thing they’d heard in forever. Shiro just gave her the same puppy-eyed look he always had. Like his girlfriend wasn’t talking about how amazing watching people getting brutally dismembered was.

They moved up in line as the group in front of them went in, chatting about the weird circumstances of them all sort of kind of knowing each other.

“So you know Matt?” Hunk asked Shiro. “And that’s how you know Pidge?” The other boy nodded.

“Yep, we’ve been on the same team for like four years, I’ve seen Pidge a lot since then.” Pidge nodded in agreement.

“It still trips me up that you guys know each other.” Keith added.

“It’s kind of hard to forget the small child yelling: ‘go fuck ‘em up Matt!’ from the bleachers every game.” Everyone laughed at that, Pidge smirking smugly. “How long have you guys been friends?” 

“Well Pidge and I have been friends since middle school.” Hunk explained. “And Lance and I went to the same elementary school. We were bff’s that were tragically separated, but had our fateful reunion in the ninth grade.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.

“How come you went to a different middle school?”

“Oh, it’s cause that was around the time Chintu was born,” Lance elaborated. “And we were all still in school so our parent’s decided to get a bigger house. So we moved.”

“Oh. Is that the house you’re in now?”

“Yep.”

“But.” Shiro was confused. “How come you go to Hunk’s high school? Aren’t you guys in completely different areas?”

Keith tilted his head. Shiro had a point. Lance’s high school was at the other end of the city, and if he and Lance lived so close to each other, then how come they didn’t go to the same high school?

Lance fidgeted. “It’s a –uh” He laughed nervously. “It’s a long story. Things weren’t…working out in my middle school.” He sighed and looked at the ground. “I was being bullied.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He didn’t expect that from Lance.

“It’s cause all the people at your old school were jackasses.” Pidge suddenly piped up. Keith had almost forgotten they were there. “Everyone loves you at our school.”

“I highly doubt that.” Lace countered. “The people loving me part, not the part about them being jackasses. Cause they totally were.”

Hunk chuckled. “That’s why everyone makes the ‘wow Lance I didn’t know you had more than two friends’ joke.”

Shiro and Allura exchanged glances; they were clearly out of the loop.

“That what joke?” Allura asked politely.

“Basically” Pidge started, but was interrupted by Lance going, “Oh my god don’t.” They weren’t fazed though, and kept going. “When Lance first came to our school he was kinda shy, but then that changed _real_ fast. And he’s like genuinely surprised by the amount of people that like him. So at this one school event, they were bringing up kids that had made an ‘impact’ or that a lot of people knew, and Lance was one of them.”

Lance turned around and placed his hands over his ears; he didn’t want to hear what was next.

“And basically he goes up there, in front of the entire school and the teacher asks him, ‘So do you know why you’re up here today?’ and you know what he says? ‘No? I don’t get it. I only have like, two friends.’ And he was honestly so surprised and clueless, like you could tell he didn’t mean it maliciously – he just thought that we were legitimately his only friends, like he couldn’t fathom the idea that other people could be his friends. It was kind of cute, because then everyone would tell him that they considered him their friend.” Everyone laughed at the story, because honestly, that was adorable.

“And now,” Hunk chimed in, “it’s a running joke whenever he introduces someone as his friend, people say ‘wow Lance, I didn’t know you had more than two friends.’”

Keith glanced over at Lance, who was turned away, but he could make out a blush slowly spreading across his face.

“Alright next group!” The employee at the door called out, and everyone could see Lance visibly look relieved. He gestured to them, and the six headed towards the entrance. Once they entered the line Keith gave Allura her scarf back, noticing she looked a little cold.  They were in the middle of getting the stamps on the back of their hands checked what Lance suddenly paused, gesturing to Keith’s hands.

“Oh my god. Are those…fingerless gloves?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Why the heck are you wearing those?”

“Cause my hands are cold? And I still wanna use my phone?”

“Aren’t they basically useless though?” He teased.

“Excuse you I like the way they look.”

Lance grinned. “So anime Keith. You’re practically a shounen protagonist.” He stepped back to give Keith a once over. “Yep. With that outfit, and a couple of impassioned speeches about friendship and you will be a bonifide anime hero.”

Keith stared at him in confusion. “Are you insulting me?”

Lance looked thoughtful, still grinning. He shrugged. “Depends on how much you like anime”, was all he said before going through the doorway of the barn.

Inside was a small entranceway where a teenager with an unfittingly excited voice explained the possible health hazards and that small children and heart patients were advised not to go. He eyed Pidge, who stared back at him defiantly and just shrugged, finishing off the monologue stating that if anyone wanted to leave anytime they could by pressing the small help button, they just couldn’t go back in. They were allowed three hints, and could ask for more, but any more than that and their run wouldn’t count as a success. Allura reassured that they didn’t need them. _There’s her competitive side._ Keith thought. The clarified that none of the actors would actually touch them and also that whatever happens, not to hurt the staff. He explained the story of the escape room to the six of them.

“In a small town,” He started dramatically. “There lived a family on a certain farm. They were known as the Millers; they were quiet and kept to themselves. Nobody knew much about them, other than the fact that there was something off about the family. For years, people had been going missing in the town, and all signs pointed to this strange family. No one said anything though, the Millers produced some of the best fruits and vegetables around, not to mention that they were the main source of food to the town. The townspeople feared that by angering them, they would risk starving. But what was the Miller’s secret? One journalist snuck in to find out, only to find himself trapped. Right before he was never heard from again, he revealed a horrifying secret. The Millers were kidnapping and murdering the townspeople, using their remains to nourish their crops, hiding the bodies in haystacks before they used them...” Keith cringed at the thought. “However, none of this could be proven. All the missing people had nothing in common. Now, it is your job, as a group of dedicated journalists, to find out the truth, and save a young girl named Lucy that had recently gone missing. You have an hour and a half to complete the room, get out, and bring back Lucy’s body; or you all become the next victims. The missing journalist left a trail of clues for you to follow, so pay attention! Your time won’t start until you guys encounter a puzzle.”  Keith didn’t have time to ask what the meant before he told them to have a ‘frighteningly good time’ and ushered them through the door and into complete darkness.

Keith immediately grabbed Shiro’s arm, holding on for dear life.

“Alright gang!” Allura sounded ecstatic, “Let’s do this! Remember to search everything!”

The six weaved their way slowly through the dimly lit corridor, the only light from the glow in the dark arrows meant to lead them. Pidge was going around opening crates and looking around for anything important, but found nothing. Keith had a death grip in Shiro’s arm the entire time, and it only got stronger whenever they turned a corner or heard a loud noise. The other boy reassuringly placed his hand over Keith’s, as if to say _I got you._

Not much happened at first; there were ambient sounds and every so often there was a creak or a rattle. Cobwebs and hay were scattered about to add to the mood, and it was clear this section was just meant to build up the atmosphere.  

“Why hasn’t anything happened yet?” Keith loudly whispered. He was jumpy.

“You don’t need to whisper Keith,” Shiro reassured. “Nothing is gonna get you- _agh!”_

“What!? What is it what happened?” Keith looked around frantically, but it was impossible to see anything.

Shiro laughed softly, “Sorry, there was a cobweb.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but it was useless considering no one could see him. They kept going in near pitch-blackness when all of a sudden at the turn of a corner the area in front of them was flooded with light. It suddenly became clear why; in front of them the path split into two doors. The one on the right was splattered with fake blood, while the one on the left had deep scratches in the wood.

The group was silent for a bit before Allura piped up: “Which way do we go?”

“Uh.” Pidge looked between the two doorways. “Left?” They turned around. “What do you guys think?”

“Let’s flip a coin.”  Lance offered.

“We couldn’t even see it if we did.” Keith countered.

Lance was about to offer a rebuttal when suddenly a faint rattling could be heard, followed by the sound of maniacal laughter.

“Did you guys hear that?” Hunk sounded scared.

“Yeah.” Shiro sounded a little nervous too. “But I’m sure it’s nothing-” He was interrupted by a sudden mechanical whirr, followed by the sound of pressure being released.

Fog started to fill the room, thick and dense. Pidge started coughed, waving their hand around to try to clear it up a little.

“Ugh, - I can’t see a thing!” Keith complained, covering his mouth to keep from coughing. His other hand was still stuck to Shiro’s arm and he could vaguely make out the shapes of some of his friends.

The laughter got louder and gradually closer, and the rattling stopped when they heard a _thunk_ then the sound of something heavy being dragged along the ground.

“What the _fuck_ is that?!” Keith tried to keep the edge out of his voice, but he was failing. He hugged Shiro’s arm against his chest and hid behind his shoulder. The sounds got louder and closer when they suddenly stopped. The tension was high in the air as no one could see anything, and the six waited anxiously for what was next.

A piercing shriek sliced through the air and the sound of an engine starting deafened their ears. There was loud whirring and Keith was about to repeat his question when all of a sudden a ragged scarecrow wielding a chainsaw popped out of nowhere, waving it around and shrieking with laughter.

Hunk screamed and scrambled to get away, literally picking up Pidge and going through the doorway on the left. The scarecrow approached Allura, who cussed loudly at him when someone grabbed her arm and dragged her after Hunk and Pidge. The scarecrow kept flailing the chainsaw around and followed the four kids down the doorway.

Keith was about to follow with Shiro when he could feel someone literally breathing down his neck. He turned around slowly to be met face to face with a horribly scarred and burned face, and the person grinned freakishly.

Keith shrieked loudly at the sight of them, tightening his grip on Shiro and dragging him towards the door on the left, they were blocked by the person with the scarred face, who Keith could now see had giant metal claws on his hands. He slashed the air in front of them and Shiro yanked Keith towards to door and through it, slamming it shut behind them. They were in a locked room, the only sound for a beat was the two boys’ laboured breaths and Keith could see Shiro leaning against the door, panting heavily.

Suddenly there was banging from the other side, and the sound of metal scraping against the wood. Shiro jumped back into the light, and Keith’s heart dropped when he saw his face. It wasn’t Shiro he was clinging to the entire time, it was Lance.

 _Well there goes the plan,_ was Keith’s first thought. He surveyed the room, on the wall there was a fake wooden torch, lit by an electric light instead of fire. The light wasn’t very bright, and for once Keith was glad for that because he wouldn’t have to look Lance in the face.

It looked like they were in a bedroom; there was a mattress with a pillow and blanket shoved into a corner, a small desk and a locked box with a clock on it. The clock started ticking down from ninety minutes, and Keith realized this is where the real escape started. There was a door with no handle on the opposite end.

“Hey, time’s ticking. Let’s get started.” He told Lance. When the other boy didn’t respond Keith approached him carefully, worried he might be too scared to continue.

“That was…” Lance started before whipping around, “ _Awesome!_ Never expected them to split us up; damn that was good! And did you see Freddy Kreuger over there? He was terrifying!” He was grinning wildly and Keith couldn’t help but laugh at how of course it was Lance of all people that would enjoy something like that; it helped him feel a little better. He shook his head, “You’re ridiculous.” He said with a chuckle. “C’mon let’s get out of here.”

They searched the room, Lance taking the desk and the box while Keith rummaged around the mattress. He heard Lance open the desk drawer, “A flashlight!” He yelled triumphantly. Keith gave him a quick thumps up. He could hear the other boy rummaging through the other draws, even tapping the bottoms for any hidden compartments.

Keith started by lifting up the pillow and taking off the blanket. He found nothing, and moved the mattress over. There was nothing underneath the mattress or under the pillow, except for a small hole in the wall.

“What the heck is _this?”_ Keith could hear Lance say, and he turned around to see the other boy holding up a long metal rod.

“No clue. Is there anything on it?”

Lance shined the flashlight on it, turning it over and inspecting it. He shook his head, but kept it aside for later.

Keith still didn’t find anything and was about to give up, when he thought of something. He felt around the pillow until he found the zipper, and opened it up. He reached in and felt around the stuffing, and his hand felt something hard. He closed his hand around it and pulled it out; it was a key. He smirked, and went to Lance to show it to him.

“Nice dude!” 

“I think it’s for that locked box.”

“Yeah probably.”

Keith moved over to where Lance was crouched in front of it, moving the small clock out of the way. He stuck the key in the lock, and sure enough it fit, Keith turning the key with a click.

They opened it up to find a small torn piece of paper, a few letters scrawled on it, but nothing distinguishable.

“Keep that, we might need it later.” Lance advised. Keith nodded, putting it aside for later.

Also in the box was another small locked box, this time with a letter combination lock and a regular key lock. The two boys looked at each other, completely confused.

“Alright now what?”

“I have no idea.”

“Is there anything else in the room?”

“Let’s look around.”

Lance took the flashlight and shone it around the room, trying to find clues.

“Holy shit. How did we miss _that?”_

Keith turned to look where Lance was pointing the flashlight, immediately taken aback.

On the wall surrounding the door were scribbles looking like they had been etched into the walls itself. They were on both walls surrounding the door, grouped in large clumps. Keith could make out certain letters, but it was all very confusing. The words themselves were gibberish.

“This is probably the puzzle that goes with the letter lock.” Lance mused

“Yeah, definitely.”

The two boys stared at the wall in silence, eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out what the heck the puzzle was supposed to mean.

After a few moments of confused silence Keith could see movement out of the corner of his eye. Lance was moving his head back and forth from each wall, shining his flashlight as he went.

“Hey I think I got something.” He murmured. He approached the wall and Keith followed him curiously.

“Look,” He said pointing to the wall. “Some words are mirrored.”

Keith followed Lance’s hand to the group of letters he was pointing at: afHznTw. Sure enough, when he turned his head to look at the other wall, the same group of letters was there, just mirrored so that they looked like scribbles. Keith looked back and forth, finding several other groups of letters that were mirrored similarly.

“So what, we’re supposed to look for the mirrored words?”

“Maybe,” Lance murmured quietly, looking between the walls intently. “But there’s too many that are. We only need five letters.”

“So we look for the one’s that aren’t mirrored?”

Lance paused, turning to look at Keith, his eyes going wide.

“You’re a fucking genius Keith.”

Keith’s face heated up at the compliment, and he turned away.

“Just stating the obvious.” He murmured, scratching the back of his neck.

They took to trying to find the clumps of letters that weren’t mirrored, and found seven that only appeared on one side of the wall.

“Okay,” Keith started. “We found seven but need five; how do we know which ones to use?”

“Look,” Lance pointed to a group of letters: zlmTNqp. “Now look at this one.” He moved his hand to the left, pointing to another group of letters; plnBit. “What’s the difference?” He asked, turning to Keith.

“Uh…” Keith looked back and forth between them, not sure what he was looking for; he opted to guess. “The second one only has one capital letter?” He tried.

“Yeah!” Lance exclaimed, grinning. “I think the letters we need to use are the ones that are capitalized, and the order is probably from the top down.”

“Yeah, makes sense.” Keith agreed.

They set about mentally noting down the letters that were capitalized, heading back to the lock when they got the five letters.

They put it in the letter lock, starting from the letters closest to the top of the wall and moving down. Lance pulled at the lock but it refused to budge.

“Hmm.” Lance looked at the lock curiously. He put in the letters in alphabetical order instead, and the two boys heard an audible click.

“Nice!” Keith exclaimed when Lance slid off the lock.

“Alright, we got one lock. But what about this one?” He gestured to the other lock that needed a key. He turned to Keith. “We’ve looked practically everywhere.”

Keith furrowed his brows, he had no idea what to do next. The two boys sat in silence for a few moments, thinking. He glanced at the clock, and was informed that almost thirty minutes had elapsed already. He had to think of something, and fast.

Keith glanced around the room, and suddenly remembered something.

“The rod!” He exclaimed, getting up quickly.

“The what?!”

“The rod you found, there.” He picked it up off of the desk. “This has to be for something right?”

“Yeah, but what?”

Keith examined it again. “Hey shine the flashlight over here, I can’t see much.”

Lance pointed his flashlight at the rod, and the rod jumped forward and hit the flashlight with a clang.

“Whoa.” Keith pried the rod off. “It’s magnetic!”

“That’s great, but how does that help us? Everything in here is either cloth or wood.”

Keith was about to answer that he didn’t know when he suddenly remembered the small hole in the wall from when he moved the mattress.

Keith rushed over to the wall and dropped down to his knees, sliding the rod into the hole. He searched around for a bit before he heard the sound of metal hitting the rod, and he smirked.

He slid out the rod and pried the key off triumphantly, and Lance clapped him on the back. They moved back to the locked box and used the key; inside the box was a small black bag. Opening it up revealed a doorknob, and another key with a black tag.

Lance pocketed the key, and the two boys headed over to the door. The taller boy inserted the doorknob, lining up the three screws to the three corresponding holes where the doorknob should have been. Once he heard a click he turned it and the boys found themselves staring down another hallway.

Lance shined the flashlight down the hallway, but all it seemed to lead to was another wall a little ways ahead of them. Keith involuntarily grabbed Lance’s arm, but let go once he realized what he had done. Lance looked at him and smiled reassuringly, taking his free hand to grab Keith’s, and placing it on his shoulder.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The walked down the hallway, Keith looking around for anything that might jump out to scare them. Lance flashed the light around as well, trying to take in his surroundings.

They reached the other end of the hallway, both boys looked at each other in confusion.

“A dead end?” Lance tilted his head.

“That can’t be right. Where else would we go?”

Lance shrugged, shining the light around some more, trying to find something that could help them.

“Oh.” Keith could hear Lance say. He turned around to find Lance staring down at the wall, his eyebrows raised.

“What are you looking at?” Keith came closer to inspect, and found a small keyhole on the wall, about a foot off the ground. He felt dread in his chest when he realized what it was.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“This is what the other key is for.”

“Yeah.”

“And we’re gonna have to _crawl_ through there.”

“Yep.”

“Fucking hell.” Keith muttered under his breath. He ran a hand down his face and let out a breath, steeling himself.

“Gimme the key.”

“You sure about this? I mean you don’t have to.”

“It’s our ticket out of here and trust me, the faster we get this over with the better it is for my poor heart.”

Lance let out a small laugh, fishing the key out of his pocket. He handed it to Keith, who dropped down to open the small door. He pushed up, and the door lifted to reveal a hole about three feet high and four feet across.

“Shine the light while I go through alright.”

“Gotcha.”

Lance aimed the beam forward as Keith got on his hands and knees to crawl through the opening in the wall.

“Nice view.” Lance remarked and Keith could hear his shit-eating grin.

“Shut up before I kick you in face.” Keith blamed his elevated heart rate on the adrenaline and how scared he was.

He made it through and waited in the darkness for Lance to come through as well. He looked down at the sound of something rolling to be greeted with the flashlight, and illuminated the way through for Lance.

One the two boys were through they stood up, Keith brushing the dirt off of his knees.

“Hey look,” Lance pointed to where they had just come from, there was a small piece of paper stuck up the opening, not unlike the one they had found earlier.

Keith nodded and took it off of the wall, keeping it for later.

They set down the only opening on their right, Keith sticking close to Lance the entire way.

“So…did the Wizard of Oz really scare you that much?” Lance tried to fill in the eerie silence.

“Oh, um” Keith hesitated, caught off guard. “Sort of. Like it isn’t the main reason, but it definitely didn’t help.”

“What happened?”

“When I was a kid, like about seven or something, my foster family at the time took me to this like fall festival thing at a farm. You know the type with hayrides and pumpkin picking; stuff like that.”

Lance nodded in understanding.

“Well they also had one of those mazes in a corn field. My foster siblings thought it would be funny to lead me in there, then ditch me once we were inside.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Keith sighed. “I was really freaked out obviously. I got lost really fast and every time I turned around there was a scarecrow, he was always just _there;_ it’s like he was mocking me.”

“That must have been terrifying.”

“Yeah. I was there for a while too. No one thought to look for me until like much later. It was almost dark when they found me, bawling my eyes out in the middle of the field.”

Lance patted his hand comfortingly.

“I was convinced that scarecrow had it out for me. Had nightmares for a week.”

“Damn. If I had known that I wouldn’t have let you come. Or made Pidge switch which one we were doing.”

“Its fine dude, they already booked it; plus it’s for your birthday I didn’t want to ruin the fun.”

“It’s not fun for me if one of the people with me isn’t enjoying it.”

Keith tried to brush it off, but it was clear Lance was not happy.

“Listen you don’t have to worry so much-” Keith’s sentence was cut off when he ran into something soft, and he let out a loud yelp.

“What the fuck was that?!” He could hear someone say.

Suddenly a bright beam of light was being pointed at them, and Keith instinctively put his hand up to shield his eyes.

“Wait it’s Keith!” He heard Shiro say. The beam of light moved over. “And Lance!”

“Can we please wait till we’re out of here to blind me?”

“No guarantees.” He heard Pidge say.

Suddenly he was being crushing in a hug along with Lance, and could feel the air slowly leaving his lungs.

“Oh my god you guys” Hunk sounded so worried. “That was terrifying and that puzzle was so hard I’m so glad we’re back together!” He sounded like he was sniffling.

“Alright Mystery Inc. let’s go.” Shiro joked.

“Does that mean Hunk is Shaggy?” Pidge scoffed.

“No no,” Allura jumped in, “Hunk is Scooby, _Keith_ is shaggy.” She pointed to Pidge. “You’re Velma, obviously.”

“And you’re Fred.” Pidge replied. The two high-fived.

“So who’s Daphne?” Shiro asked curiously.

“You and Lance can share that role.” Allura joked, giving him a wink.

Lance was about to refute when Shiro cut in, “Alright, alright, let’s just get going; we don’t have a lot of time left.”

“Shit! We only have 45 minutes!” Lance remarked.

“Alright gang,” Allura started up with renewed vigor, “Let’s roll!” She pointed the flashlight dramatically forward.

The six of them continued forward; Hunk informed Lance and Keith that the four of them had ended up in a room similar to the one the two boys had been in, also finding a couple of scraps of paper along the way. Hunk had also informed them that it was mainly Pidge and Allura that had solved most of the puzzles, the two becoming instant best friends.

They were met with a few more puzzles along the way, mostly small ones that required them to look around the room. Hunk solved one that stumped pretty much everyone, because the pattern used was unfamiliar to everyone but him.

There weren’t any more crazy scarecrows or creepy metal-fingered dudes jumping out at them, but the ambient noises and creepy atmosphere didn’t let up. The scariest thing that happened to them was all of the lights suddenly turning off and a key falling from the ceiling on a string. Keith’s yelp at that scared everyone more than the actual event.

They breezed through the rest of the puzzles now that all six of them were together, and found more scraps of paper, piecing the rest of the story together slowly.

Eventually they found themselves in an empty room, the door in front of them had no handle or lock, and the only other thing in the room was a message; PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER written in what looked like blood, the last letter trailing off, like someone had written it with their hands and were dragged away once they were done.

“So it looks like they were targeting people with a certain blood type.” Pidge remarked once they pieced together all the scraps they had, the six of them were crowding around the recently reassembled list of victims, all of them had the blood type O negative.

“Why the hell would they do that?”

“I don’t know dude, they’re serial killers! They probably have some fucked up reason.”

“But how would they know that these people had that certain blood type?”

“Well they had to be in cahoots with like a doctor or something right?”

“True.” Hunk gasped. “That’s how we prove it! If we bring the list then this will be proof we need right!”

“Yeah!” Shiro agreed. “Now we just gotta save the girl.”

Loud maniacal laughter interrupted their conversation, causing them all to jump.

“I see you’ve deciphered our secret.” A menacing voice boomed over the speakers. “Very good.”

Lance instinctively placed his hand over Keith’s on his arm. Keith tried not to stare at him, and focused on the situation instead.

“But,” The voice continued. “You all must make a choice.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Allura commented.

“You all can choose to leave now with the information you have, but the young girl will die. Or.” It paused for effect. “You can save her, but you must sacrifice your evidence.”

The six friends looked at one another warily.

“You have two minutes to make your choice.”

“Sacrifice her.” Pidge said without hesitation.

“What?!” Hunk yelped. “We can’t let her die, plus we’ll fail the room if we don’t save her!”

“It’s either she dies and we stop them, or they keep doing what they do and other people die.”

“Pidge is right.” Allura agreed.

“But we can’t just leave her.” Lance tried to argue.

They went back and forth like that for a while, before Shiro cut in.

“We’re wasting time, we have to make a choice!”

“We should save her,” Hunk tried to persuade them.

Suddenly, Keith remembered something. “Wait!” Everyone turned to look at him.

“Remember what the attendant said at the start?”

“We need to get out and save Lucy while exposing the murderers?” Shiro offered.

“No; well, yes but.” Keith looked around. “They said that we need to bring back Lucy’s _body._ So it doesn’t matter if she’s alive, as long as we get her body from them! She’s probably dead either way.”

“He’s right,” Shiro chimed in. “This way, we complete all the objectives.”

“Have you made your choice?” The booming voice returned.

“Yeah!” Keith shouted. “We’re leaving with the evidence we have!” He shouted triumphantly.

They could hear the sound of pressure releasing, and the door in front of them opened up. Everyone looked at each other excitedly, happy that they finished the escape room.

The voice suddenly started laughing menacingly. “That’s great. Go ahead. Leave.” There was a pause.

“ _If you can.”_  The sound a chainsaw roaring to life hit their ears, along with metal scraping against metal.

“ _Fuck_ no not these guys again!” Keith screeched before grabbing the nearest pair of hands and bolting through the door. Everyone else followed suit, not waiting around for the sounds they heard to catch up to them.

They bolted down the hallway as fast as they could, reaching one final door with a timer above it that informed them that they had five minutes left.

Shiro tried prying it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“What the hell?!” He complained. “I thought we finished all the puzzles.”

“Not yet.” Allura said, pointing to a keypad next to the door. “Look.”

“Fuck!” Pidge yelled. “What the hell could this be, we don’t have any more keys or clues!”

The sound of the chainsaw was quickly approaching.

“How long is the passcode?” Hunk yelled.

The maniacal laughter was also getting louder.

“There’s only two spaces.” Shiro confirmed. “But I have no idea what it could be!”

“I don’t know either but hurry!” Keith never felt so stressed in his life.

“Try O negative, or O and a minus sign, after the blood type.” Lance yelled quickly.

Shiro punched it in as fast as he could, and the keypad lit up green and beeped three times.

“Yes!” Hunk yelled. “Lance I fucking love you!” Shiro quickly turned the handle and the six teens practically fell through the door and into a room flooded with light, Lance being the last one out and slamming it shut behind them.

He and Keith slumped against the door, panting. Hunk was crouched next to Pidge, who had no fucks left to give and was just laying spread-eagled on the ground, trying to catch their breath. Shiro had his hands on his knees, looking winding.

Allura on the other hand was still pumped full of adrenaline. “That was awesome!”

Everyone turned to look at her exasperatingly.

The attendant that had explained the room when they first started greeted them at the exit, smiling.

“So how was it?” He asked with a grin.

“First of all.” Keith started in between breaths. “Fuck you.”

Lance turned to stare at him incredulously, but the employee just laughed.

“Yeah I get that a lot. But good news!” He raised his hand. “You all completed the room successfully with three minutes left to spare!” He high fived each of them in turn, even Pidge who was basically passed out on the ground.

“It’s pretty impressive that you all managed to do it without any hints.” He continued. “The success rate for this room is only around thirty percent, and that’s usually with one or two hints. So good job!”

“See gang!” Allura beamed. “I told you all we could do it!” The five responded to her with groans.

***

Once they took a commemorative photo of their successful escape they headed back to the parking lot, ready to go home. It was pretty late once they left, and Pidge looked really to pass out for the night.

They chatted for a little while they waited for Lance’s mom to pick him, Pidge and Hunk up. Pidge and Allura exchanged contact information, seeing as they were practically best friends already.

“Hey Keith,” Lance pulled him off to the side. “You okay?”

He stared at the other boy, surprised he was _still_ worried. Keith smiled. “I’m fine dude, it was scary but in the end I had a lot of fun. And you saved us there in the end.” 

Lance looked bashful. “It was nothing, just said the first thing that came to mind.”

“Still.” Keith clapped him on the shoulder. “It was a lot of fun, we should do one of these again! Just not one that’s you know, so scary.”

Lance smiled. “Deal.” He looked like he was about to say something else when a car honked at them, and Sam rolled down the passenger side window to yell at them to get in.

“There’s my ride.” Lance chuckled, “See ya, Keith.” 

Keith waved goodbye as the three friends piled into Lance’s mom’s car, Pidge immediately falling asleep in the back seat.

Shiro nudged him in the arm. Keith turned to find him smirking at him, and responded with the most unimpressed face he could muster.

“If you’re asking if I had fun, then yes.”

“Oh I know you did, especially considering that you two just so happened to be separated from us like that. What a great coincidence huh Keith?”

“Oh god stop.”

“And how he let you hold on to him like that…”

“Shiro.” Keith groaned. He could hear Allura snickering.

“I’m just saying…” Keith blocked his ears as Shiro went on all the way to his car, and the majority of the car ride home, wanting to argue, but really he couldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello yes it me queen of inconsistencies and forgetting basic shit from her own story how are yall doing tonight?  
> U know what sucks university actually it doesn’t suck that much but school AND work? Hoo boy I have like negative zero time to do shit I am sorry frands  
> I will try 2 be faster w these chapters but the semester is almost over ayyy so I’ll have a lot of free time during December to do stuff like write the story  
> NEXT CHAPTER IS PARTY BIRTHDAY TIMES YAY  
> and some other stuff idk it might be late oR EARLY BC I GO ON BREAK SOON SO WHO KNOWSSSSSSSSSSS  
> but ye thanks for sticking around yall love u ;-;


	8. insecurities and birthday sweets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a birthday party and Keith confronts some of his insecurities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aha hello everyone its been a long time coming hasnt it haha.............  
> listen aight school? it sucks. work? also sucks and i have no time  
> actually thats a lie ive been spending all my time playing overwatch u guys have every right to be mad at how late this is omg  
> ive just been severely demotivated nad its so hard to write when u have no will to ;-------------;  
> but ye i feel like ive forgotten half of whats going on in this sotry so if there are any inconsistencies im really sorry lmao im trying ;-;  
> but yeah sorry if this chapter is a little short the next few are gonna ramp up the drama and angst so prepare ur butts :^)

Keith was running through a corn field, panting, gasping. His pulse was high and the adrenaline was pumping through his veins. Behind him, a scarecrow wielding a chainsaw was chasing after him, laughing maniacally.

Suddenly a brick wall appeared in front of him, cutting off his escape. He turned around in horror, putting his hands up to shield himself from the scarecrow. He was ready to accept his fate when all of a sudden someone jumped out, wielding a giant scythe and driving the scarecrow away.

His saviour was wearing a flowing black cloak, and Keith looked at them in awe. The person turned around and flashed a smile.

Keith opened his eyes wide; the person in front of him revealed themselves to be Lance.

Lance walked toward him quickly, placing his hand on the small of Keith’s back once he reached him. Keith was about to protest when he let out a yelp as he was suddenly turned around and dipped, Lance leaned toward him, pursing his lips and closing his eyes.

Keith blushed furiously, looking at Lance with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Lance’s face inched closer, and Keith could feel his pulse quickening.

Right before their lips touched Keith gasped and jolted forward, sitting up in his bed. He was sweating and out of breath, whether it was from the fear or from the adrenaline of Lance almost dream-kissing him, he didn’t know.

He ran a hand down his face, wiping the sweat off of himself. He glanced over at his clock. It informed him that it was just past one in the afternoon.

It was Saturday, and Lance’s birthday party was in a few hours. Keith rolled over, groaning. He was sore from a really long run yesterday; he was trying to keep himself distracted lest he start thinking about creepy scarecrows again. He debated whether or not to sleep over at Shiro’s house till this was over, but he didn’t want to be a bother. Lord knows he did that enough when the two of them were kids.

Keith stared at the ceiling for another hour before dragging himself out of bed and hopping in the shower. Hot water cascaded down, and he hoped the steam would fog up his thoughts like it was the bathroom; Keith was still having flashbacks to his dreams. It was over a week now, and Keith was averaging less than five hours of sleep per night. He remembered when he had nightmares for almost two weeks after he and Shiro watched the fourth Harry Potter movie.

He assured Shiro that he got over it, that he didn’t have nightmares anymore, but the dark circles under his eyes proved otherwise. It wasn’t the nightmares that affected him so much per say, he had gotten used to them; it was the fact that Lance had now taken a habit of showing up to dramatically save the day every time.

They said that dreams were a window into the subconscious, if that was true, Keith didn’t know what the _fuck_ was going on in his head.

He shut off the tap and stepped out of the shower into his steam filled bathroom. Wiping the fog off of the mirror Keith couldn’t help but recoil at the sight of himself; dark circles, giant bags under his eyes and a sickly complexion. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in what felt like forever, and that really started to take a toll on him when he added work and school into the mix. Tiring himself out by running probably didn’t help all that much either.

He didn’t feel like going to the party later tonight. He was excited to see Lance, sure, but he also wasn’t too keen on seeing Lance and his other friends while he was having these dreams. Why did his subconscious have to torture him like this? He figured his presence wasn’t going to be missed too much, but he really wanted to give Lance his gift in person. Plus, going out and doing something would probably be better than sitting at home and wallowing till Monday.

He got dressed and flopped back on his bed, contemplating what to do. He knew for a fact that if he went to Lance’s party like this, he’d be bombarded with questions the second he stepped through the door. He didn’t want to worry Lance or his family.

He rolled over onto his side, staring at his phone. His lockscreen was a picture of him, Shiro and Allura. The couple making silly faces while Keith looked disgruntled.

An idea popped into his head.

He grabbed his phone, unlocked it, and speed-dialed Shiro.

***

“Why does this stuff smell so weird?”

“What did you expect Keith, for it to smell like roses?”

“I dunno. Maybe?”

A sigh. “Unfortunately I can’t afford that kind of luxury. And stop moving or I’m going to poke your eye.”

Keith obliged, letting Allura finish up. Shiro looked on, bemused. Chin and hand and sitting backwards on Keith’s desk chair, he found this situation ‘very cute’.  

“All right.” Allura concluded after a moment. “All done.” She held up a mirror to Keith’s face.

“Whoa!” Keith marveled at his now flawless skin. “You can’t even tell I had dark circles! It’s kind of scary actually.” Keith kept staring in wonder. “Why don’t more dudes wear makeup?”

Allura chuckled while she put her brushes away. “That unfortunately is another conversation for another time. Now hurry up.” She chided. “You’re gonna be late.”

Keith checked his watch, and scrambled to his feet. It was five-thirty and Keith had half an hour to get to Lance’s house. He grabbed his jacket, taking one last look in the mirror before grabbing his keys and getting ready to go.

He heard Shiro clear his throat. “Forgetting something there bud?”

Keith halted and turned around in confusion. Shiro was holding up a very brightly coloured package, complete with ribbons and bows, courtesy of Allura.

“Lance’s present!” He nearly screamed, leaping over to take it from Shiro’s hands. The couple got up and followed Keith out the door, waiting outside as he locked his apartment. They rode the elevator down together, the couple waving Keith goodbye as he set off towards Lance’s house.

He walked briskly, but then slowed down when he realized he was probably early anyway. He tried his best not to touch his face but it was hard. Would anyone notice he was wearing makeup? Allura assured him that no one would be the wiser, but he just didn’t want to reveal why he put it on in the first place.

Lance’s front door was adorned with a small cluster of bright balloons, and Keith smiled. Lance was a year away from being a legal adult and he still acted like a kid, it was endearing.

The second he rang the doorbell a commotion erupted from behind the door; Keith laughed, already used to the constant ruckus that took place in the Siddiqui household.

After a few moments the door opened to reveal Lance, who looked like he was in the middle of fighting with one of his cousins; at their feet were several small children attacking each other with balloon swords.

“Keith!” Farhan exclaimed mid-whack against his cousin Atif’s head.

“Hey buddy,” He smiled and bent down to give Lance’s younger brother a hug, but was promptly swarmed by small children and rubber swords. Keith tumbled over, and the kids kept whacking him, yelling something about ‘preventing mutiny.’

“Alright pirates, back off.” Lance held his hand out and helped Keith off the ground.

“Sorry dude.” Lance apologized once Keith was on his feet again. “My uncle put on Pirates of the Caribbean to calm them down a little but it did the opposite.”

“It’s all good, I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to get attacked by a swarm of small children.” He joked.

Lance was about to turn to lead Keith into the living room, but did a double take. He narrowed his eyes at Keith.

“Did you do something to your face?”

“What?” Keith laughed nervously. _Shit._ Would he notice?

“You’re like,” Lance paused. “Glowing.”

Keith felt his face heat up incredibly fast.

Suddenly he remembered what he was holding. “Here!” Keith thrust the package at Lance, who took it with surprise.

He smiled. “You didn’t have to.”

“Dude.” Keith looked at him incredulously. “It’s your birthday.”

Lance shook his head, but accepted the package anyway.

Keith followed the other boy into the living room, finding a party in full swing. The movie was replaced by Pidge and Ali playing a very intense battle of Street Fighter V; Lance’s cousin put up a fair fight, but Pidge wombo combo’d him to death. Pidge let out a yell of victory and Ali shrieked, almost throwing the controller.

“No fair _chashmish!”_ Ali yelled. “I demand a rematch!”

“Dude.” Hunk chided in from the kitchen. “That’s your third rematch.”

“Well I demand another!” Ali insisted.

“Alright, alright,” Lance chided, “Will giving you some gulaab jamun help?”

“I want two.”

“Deal.”

Keith walked around and greeted everyone; Sadie happily hugged him, and they chatted for a bit. Ike and Mehr greeted him warmly, Ayesha was too busy snuggling with Luna to notice anyone else. Rosie dropped by for a little bit to greet everyone, give her present – to which she warned Lance not to spend it all at once – before donning her scrubs and heading to the hospital for her clinical. He hugged Sam who eyed him with a knowing look but otherwise didn’t say anything. He headed to the kitchen and said hello to Lance’s mom, who looked genuinely very happy to see him, smiling warmly. Eventually Keith settled in on the couch, chatting with some of Lance’s cousins. It seems that this was mainly a family party, with the exception of him, Pidge and Hunk.

“Who else is coming?” Keith asked Lance.

“Hm? Everyone is mostly here.” Lance looked thoughtful. “Well Shireen’s sick so I don’t think their family is coming.”

“No I meant like your other friends.” He had other friends right?

Lance barked out a laugh, “What other friends? I went out for pizza with my soccer buddies but other than that you guys are pretty much it.”

Keith looked at him in surprise. So, other than his two friends he’d known for years and had been through a lot with, it was just Keith.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He was happy that he had managed to become close friends with Lance so quickly but was also surprised and kind of saddened by the fact that Lance didn’t have many other friends. His initial perception of Lance seemed to be getting more inaccurate by the day.

The party was pretty chill for the most part, consisting mostly of the cousins hanging out and talking. Currently, Hunk and Sam were in a riveting battle of Just Dance, the two of them flailing around rhythmically, Hunk took the lead for a few split seconds before Sam muscled her way back to the top. She absolutely _destroyed_ him by the end.

Keith went one round against Maliha, and his two left feet didn’t fail him when he barely managed to get two stars.

He slumped back into the couch next to Lance, drowning his embarrassment at his utter defeat in chips and soda. Lance patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

Everyone eventually joined in for a very competitive game of charades. The little kids doing an adorable job of acting out their phrases.

Keith was on a team with Sadie, Sam, Pidge, Ali and some of Lance’s other cousins, while the rest were on the opposing team.

The battle grew intense, and eventually the two teams were tied – and Keith was up next.

Keith got the movie Tangled, he tried his best to act out mimicking having long hair and singing, and then someone trying to climb. Everyone shouted out whatever came to their mind, but it was Sadie that guessed Tangled, and Keith picked her up and spun her around, considering she just secured their win.

Keith’s team won in the end, and the losing team had to wear silly cone party hats for the remainder of the day.

Lance was forced to wear two on each side of his head, like a pair of pointy earmuffs. Many pictures were snapped.

Keith took a second and took in his surroundings, much like he did during the other family party. He really enjoyed how at ease he felt with Lance’s family, something he wasn’t too used to with people he didn’t know for very long.

After the small kids had relocated upstairs, Ali decided to put on a movie for the older kids to watch. Turning off the lights and grabbing some popcorn, all the teenagers settled onto the couch and the floor in front of Lance’s TV, eyes focused on the screen.

Keith was coming back from the bathroom when the movie was started, and wasn’t sure which one it was. He was about to ask Lance – who had since taken off the silly party hats because he kept poking people - when the first scene started to play out, and Keith settled back, not wanting to disturb everyone.

The movie started out relatively normally, with a family moving into a new house. The parents and two children all nestled up in front of their fireplace, deciding to sleep together in their living room. Keith was confused about what exactly the movie was about when suddenly the music turned eerie. One of the children awoke to get some water, going into the kitchen by themselves. The camera panned close to the child who turned suddenly at a sound to their right.

Keith flinched, feeling a knot starting to form in his stomach. _Oh no._ Keith felt dread settle in his chest. _It’s a horror movie._  

He tried not to look too nervous, thanking but also cursing whoever turned the lights off.

He could feel Lance glance at him every so often, probably trying to make sure he was okay. Keith planned on closing his eyes at every scary scene, but with Lance watching him, he had to make it seem like he was doing okay.

He didn’t last long, noticeably flinching or gasping at the jumpscares. He wasn’t really paying attention so he wasn’t too scared, but the jumpscares still managed to surprise him every time.

The worst thing about the whole situation wasn’t the horrible chainsaw death that was on the screen right now – which Ali exclaimed was ‘awesome’ – it was the fact that he kept being reminded of his terribly embarrassing dreams, while sitting right next to Lance.

He felt himself grow even more uncomfortable, shifting around awkwardly, and trying to find a place to look that wasn’t the screen or Lance. This whole situation was putting a damper on his mood, and he tried to stop himself before he got all moody. He hated when that happened; knowing that you were the one to ruin the mood for everyone else was the absolute worst, and Keith had done it often enough.

He knew he was hotheaded, he knew he was stubborn, but he still did it anyway, and he hated himself for that.

And now, he realized, he was in the downward spiral of thinking too much, and that made him feel much, much worse. Keith let out a frustrated huff, incredibly angry at himself.

A small tap on his shoulder pulled him out of the black hole that was his thoughts, and he turned to find Lance leaning towards him.

Lance tilted his head closer to Keith’s, which caused a jolt to run down the other boy’s spine.

“Hey come with me for a sec,” Lance whispered in his ear. His breath tickled Keith’s neck, the other boy tried not to act too affected. “I need your help with something.”

“Uh sure.” Keith tried not to look too relieved as he got up quickly, following Lance into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Lance dropped his voice low, eyebrows furrowed. “Are you all right?”

 _Shit._ Lance had noticed Keith’s brooding.

“Yeah,” Keith tried not to let his voice give away anything. “I’m fine.” He tried leaning on the counter inconspicuously. It didn’t work.

“Seriously dude.” Lance placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You were stiff as a rock. I know you’re not good with this stuff, we can turn it off if you wanna.”

“I – uh.” Keith looked anywhere but at Lance. He could feel the other boy’s eyes on him, and felt panic swelling in his chest. He knew Lance wasn’t the type to let this drop, and he figured it would upset him if Keith kept trying to insist he was okay. He still tried though.

“It’s fine – plus, I don’t want to ruin the mood for anyone else.”

“You’re not going to ruin anything Keith. How many times do I need to tell you that?”

“Really, it’s okay. You don’t have to worry about just me. There’s other people here too, and it seems like they want to watch. Don’t sweat it dude.” He tried to laugh to lighten the mood. “Are you the mom friend that checks up on everyone like this?”

“Yes.” Lance said in a heartbeat, not very amused, “because I want everyone to have fun.” He wasn’t letting this go.

Keith really didn’t want to do this, it was Lance’s birthday party, and Keith was _not_ going to fuck it up.

He closed his eyes and sighed. Figuring fessing up would be easier than trying to lie.

“I’ve just-”He paused, trying to work out his wording. “Since the escape house, I’ve been having, - He sighed. “ _Dreams.”_ He tried backpedalling when he saw the look on Lance’s face. “It’s okay though, it’s not a big deal. They’re not really scary just – _uncomfortable_?” He didn’t sound so sure of himself. The dreams were uncomfortable in a sense – they went into a territory Keith didn’t want to explore right now.

“It is a big deal. What do you mean by uncomfortable?”

“Just things that when you wake up you can’t stop thinking about it; do you get what I mean?” Keith tried coming up with a way so he didn’t have to explain himself. “I don’t remember them that well though, but I do remember that feeling.”

“I’m used to it okay.” He tried reassuring him. “I’ll get over it in a bit.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Not long – “

“If it’s been a while, you can talk to me Keith, I know what it’s like to have nightmares and – “

Keith was so not in the mood for this right now.

“Listen!” Keith flinched at his volume. Lowering his voice: “I don’t want to do this okay? It’s your fucking birthday I don’t want to ruin it. I’m always a downer and I didn’t want to be this time!”

“You’re not–” Lance looked frustrated. “What are you talking about? Like I said: you being upset would upset me but that doesn’t mean you’re ruining my birthday party Keith. Just let me know if you’re not doing well, okay?”

Lance was doing it again. Saying the most obvious things but Keith was so unfamiliar to this that he didn’t know how to retort.

He closed his eyes. “Can we do this later?” He pleaded.

Lance looked reluctant, but nodded his head; the conversation was over.

Keith managed to feel even _worse_ when they headed back to the couch, having basically done what he feared doing all along.

And now, Lance would be worried about him, keeping an eye out instead of enjoying himself and Keith cursed himself for being like this.

Keith lasted the rest of the movie without any additional struggle, mostly because he was too busy thinking of all the ways he could’ve avoided what just happened – and how he could fix it. He knew Lance would bring it up at some point – he just didn’t know when.

Once the movie was over it was time for food, and everyone gorged themselves on pizza and pop. Keith busied himself talking to Pidge about video games, a mutual interest they had just recently discovered.

The party goers were soon called into the kitchen the cut the cake. It was a black forest cake with a slab of chocolate that read _Happy 17 th Birthday Lance! _Instead of candles the cake was covered with sparklers and Sam had the honour of lighting them all once everyone was gathered around the kitchen table.

As soon as the sparklers went out, Lance cut the cake and everyone burst out into a very loud and enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday.

Lance’s mom fed him some cake, and Keith noticed Sam taking pictures in the background.

The second Lance’s mom moved away however, his cousins, Pidge and Hunk swarmed in, each taking a piece of cake or some frosting, and shoving it into Lance’s face.

He yelped, trying to get away, but there were too many of them, and Hunk was holding him back. Soon Lance was covered in icing. Keith burst out into laughter, doubling over at the sight.

Lance took advantage of Keith’s distractedness to exact some revenge and shove some icing on his face, and Keith stared at him incredulously before taking a strawberry off the cake and putting it on Lance’s nose, making him look like a clown.

Everyone erupted into laughter once again, taking advantage of the sight to take several pictures. Ike was filming the whole thing – ‘for blackmail purposes’, Sadie had informed him.

After everything had calmed down and icing had been cleaned up it was time for some to go home. Once some of the families had left, everyone started cleaning up. Keith helped to clean up some of the plates and cups scattered around the house. When he looked around he realized that the only ones left were Lance’s family, Pidge, Hunk and himself.

“Hey Lance, what presents did you get?” Pidge inquired once they all finished cleaning and sat back down on the couch.

“I don’t know I haven’t looked at them yet.”

“Open them now! It’s just us.”

“Yeah I’m curious too.” Hunk chimed in.

Lance admitted he was curious too, and grabbed the presents from their corner in the living room.

He opened them one by one, carefully peeling off the tape and unwrapping the gifts carefully. Keith was the type to just claw at the package until he just got to the contents.

His haul included a watch, a pair of really nice headphones, the new Pokemon game and a build-your-own Gundam courtesy of Hunk. His siblings gifted him the new Beyonce CD.

He got to Keith’s present last, carefully taking off the bows and untying the ribbons. Pidge was getting impatient, saying they were ready to rip apart the gift if he didn’t hurry up.

Lance shot them a glare, but he still hurried up his pace. He took the lid off of the box once he got all the wrapping paper off, and slid the sheet of colourful tissue paper off to reveal the notebook.

Lance paused, picking it up slowly. He turned in around in his hands in awe, running his hands along the cover and spine.

 _His eyes are doing that sparkly thing again._ Was all Keith could think as he saw Lance flip through the pages, his eyebrows shooting up in excitement as he read the names of the constellations in the corner of the pages.

He looked up at Keith, speechless, and the other boy just smiled back at him.

“That’s not it, there’s more!”

“There’s _more?!”_ Lance replied incredulously. He dove back into the box, taking out the other sheets of tissue paper covering the rest of Lance’s gift. He had placed the gift on top of the box that it came in, as to not give away the surprise. He took the tissue paper off of it, and stared at slightly confused, similar to how Keith did when Shiro first brought it to him.

“It’s a…mug?” Lance looked suspiciously at the plain dark blue mug in his hands. “Thanks Keith!” 

Keith let out a chuckle, getting up and signalling that he would be right back.

Lance, Pidge and Hunk all looked at each other equally confused as to what Keith was doing.

A few moments later Keith returned with a kettle in his hands, adding to the confusion on the three teenagers faces.

Keith gestured at Lance to give him the mug, which he set down on the table. Keith motioned at everyone to gather round, and they all stared intently at the mug.

He slowly poured the boiling water into the mug, after a few seconds, the colours on the mug changed to reveal a galaxy dotted with stars, complete with little lines to connect the ones that were constellations.

“Whoa!” Pidge exclaimed.

“Ta-dah!” Keith smiled triumphantly at everyone’s faces of awe.

Lance met eyes with him again, blue-grey eyes still shining, looking touched.

All of Keith’s previous worries and insecurities practically melted away when he saw how Lance looked at him just then. He couldn’t do anything but respond with a smile.

Keith tried his hardest not to blush, and looked away, bashful. He tried to backtrack and explain himself: “I – uh, I knew that you liked stars and stuff, I mean you already have so much space stuff I still wanted to try getting something you didn’t already have and –“

Lance stopped him with a hand on his shoulder: “Thanks Keith.” He said softly. Their eyes met after a moment and Keith could feel his heart swell. They looked at each other like that for a few moments, unable to break contact.

“God.” Pidge said exasperatedly. “Get a room.”

Everyone turned to stare at them, unimpressed. Pidge just stuck their tongue out and threw up a peace sign, unaffected by their stares.

A loud ringing went off, signaling Hunk that his parents had arrived. He bid them goodbye and left just as soon as Matt pulled up to pick up Pidge.

Keith helped put away the last few dishes and swept, Lance already long given up on trying to stop him.

Lance’s mom packed up a bunch of leftovers to give to Keith, shoving far too much food into his hands. He took it gratefully, and promised _yes he would share it with his friend Shiro, no Shiro not Hiro, Aunty. Yes I’ll bring him over sometime I’m sure he’ll love it._  

Lance dragged Keith away from his mother before she decided to keep him right then and there. He was ready to walk home alone before Lance protested, telling Keith to stay where he was while he grabbed his coat.

Keith in the meantime, put his shoes on. He wanted to say goodbye to everyone, but Sadie and Farhan were already asleep, and he didn’t know where Sam went.

His question was soon answered when Sam suddenly appeared next to him with a quiet, ‘hey’.

He jolted and toppled over, not seeing or hearing her sidle up next to him. He recovered quickly and stood up, trying not to look too embarrassed. She smirked at him and shook her head.

“Thanks Keith.”

“Uh – for what?”

“For that gift you gave him. It meant a lot. Everyone kind of silently agreed not to give him more space related stuff because it reminded him of our dad but…I think he missed it. He’s kind of stopped being as into it as he was before, and I think your gift sparked his interest in it again.”

“Oh…I didn’t – that’s’ not –“

She chuckled. “I know, but still. He needed it. So thanks.”

Keith was still a little confused and overwhelmed but nodded anyway, smiling back at her. “Anytime.”

Keith was about to ask her more about Lance and his dad when the latter former showed up with his coat.

Sam patted – or more accurately, whacked – Keith on the shoulder and wished him a goodnight.

“Goodnight Sam.” He tried to say without coughing. How she was so strong, Keith would never know.

They headed off towards Keith’s apartment building after Lance let his mom know he'd be back.

They walked side by side in the cool evening air. Now that it was almost November the chill had definitely set in, and it wouldn’t be long now until they got some snow.

Lance seemed to be enjoying it, looking up at the sky and smiling softly at the cool night breeze. He breathed deeply, relishing in the fresh air. Keith on the other hand, was trying very hard not to shiver too much, he still got cold incredibly easily.

“Hey, thanks for coming.”

“Lance. Stop thanking me every time. I’m your friend.”

“Yeah I know I just, don’t know how else to say thanks.”  

“You don’t need to thank me, period!”

Lance laughed. “Fair enough, I’ll stop.”

Keith huffed, zipping up his jacket to guard himself against a particularly cold gust of wind.

They walked in silence for a few moments, simply enjoying each other’s company. Lance spoke up once they neared Keith’s apartment.

“Hey,” He tugged on the sleeve of Keith’s jacket. “I hate to do this now but…”

Keith turned, and looked at Lance, who was looking away.

“What is it?”

“Is…is something going on with you? Is everything okay?”

Keith was confused for a second when he remembered their earlier conversation. He bristled, not wanting to talk about this. He was about to turn to walk back into his house when Lance grabbed his arm.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to talk about this but why did you say that stuff, about being a downer?”

Keith sighed, he didn’t really tell many people of his insecurities, he was the type to bottle it up for a long time then explode. But he wasn’t about to say that.

“You know how I always overthink things? Like too much.”

Lance nodded.

“When I was a kid I was very bad and making friends and I would always overthink and worry about every little thing, I still do somewhat but like, it was really bad when I was younger. Because of that I would always think about everything I did and how this thing I did was annoying people or that thing I did was making people hate me. Then because I thought I was ruining everything I would get all grumpy and actually eventually ruin everything. What is that called? A self-fulfilling prophecy." Keith laughed dryly. "I didn’t want you to worry about me so I tried hiding my problems.”

“Is that why you wore makeup?”

“Wait- what?!” Keith screeched. “You _noticed!?”_

Lance started laughing loudly. “It was kind of hard not to. Don’t worry though, you look good!”

“Oh my god.” Keith turned around and started walking towards the doors. Lance jogged up to him and blocked his way, still laughing.

“I’m sorry – listen.” He held his hands up in acquiescence, suddenly becoming serious. “How many times do I have to tell you you’re not a downer? I know it’s hard for you to accept, it sounds like you’ve been through a lot but I don’t think that way about you – no one does! My friends and family all think you’re great and Shiro and Allura care about you a lot so, you can relax a little. Try to depend on me okay?”

Keith nodded. “Sorry, I’ll try not to worry so much.”

“You’re allowed to worry, but it’s easier to share those worries with other people.”

Keith nodded again. “How are you so good at this?”

“At what?”

“Comforting people. Talking to anxious wrecks like me.”  He meant it jokingly; but he wasn’t ready for what Lance was about to say next.

“Sam has anxiety.”

Keith whipped his head around to look at Lance. “Oh. Oh…I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like-“

“No it’s okay dude. You and she are similar in more ways than you think. But yeah that’s why we got Luna. She’s mostly Sam’s dog anyway. My dad got her for her when he found out she had anxiety.”

“Your dad sounds like he was great.”

Lance smiled sadly, looking up at the night sky. “He was.”

Keith really wanted to know more about Lance and his dad, but figured now wasn't the best time to ask.

They said their goodbyes and it wasn’t until Keith was in the elevator halfway up to his apartment that he realized something from their conversation in Lance’s kitchen earlier.

What did Lance mean when he said he also had nightmares?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Keith finally gets his shit together and takes the initiative to ask Lance to go hang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy so uh its been a while hasnt it? haha...   
>  listen i have no excuse its true school and work are a bitch but im also lazy and ive had very little motivation to write and whtnot and IM SORRY BUT HERES A CHAPTER hopefully there isnt another 6 month gap between chapters lul   
> BUT YE GUESS WHOS BACK   
> BACK AGAIN   
> YA GIRL IS BACK   
> TELL YA FREIDNs actually dont this chapter is bleh i havent even edited it im gonna do that when its nOT 3AM OK   
> bless u all i lvoe u   
> DISCLAIMER THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN OVER LIKE 4 MONTHS SO ITS LIKE DISJOINTED AS FUCK ill fix it later trust

The first week of November was misleading to many, considering the minute the first week had passed a cold front swooped in, announcing itself with a small storm of flurries. The snowflakes melted as soon as they hit the ground, but it was still nice to look at, to run around in. Which is exactly what Lance, Sadie, Farhan and Luna did, judging by the pictures Lance was tagged in on Facebook.

The siblings plus dog were photographed frolicking around in the park while it snowed, and there were several pictures of Sadie and Farhan trying to catch snowflakes in their mouth.

Keith scrolled up to look at more pictures of them being silly, but instead stumbled on to pictures of the family during Eid, judging by their fancy outfits and the plentiful amount of food.

Lance’s outfit was a dark blue and Keith was still not over how _good_ that colour looked on him.

The pictures were typical of what happened at their family parties, lots of people hanging around eating, laughing and having a good time.

Keith laughed out at a picture of Lance holding up a fan of money, peeking his eyes over the top dramatically. He recalled something about kids receiving lots of money on Eid, or as Lance described it, ‘Muslim Christmas just with less presents and no trees or terrible songs.’

Keith’s favourite picture was probably of Ahmed squatting on a chair in front of a table filled with food, his hands put together in a silent prayer.

There was still one thing that was gnawing at the back of Keith’s mind. Last week when Lance offhandedly mentioned he had nightmares, Keith couldn’t stop thinking about it. What were his nightmares about? How bad were they? How long had he been having them for?

He wanted to ask the boy himself, but couldn’t muster up the courage to.

He suddenly had a terrible idea, and went through with it before he could stop himself.

Keith’s cursor hovered over and clicked _Sam Siddiqui_ and typed out what he wanted to say before he fully realized what he was doing. He realized he was probably being incredibly insensitive and was about to type out a quick apology when Sam replied.

_It’s not my place to say. You should ask him yourself and he’ll tell you when he’s ready. And yes he was bullied, but again, talk to him about that directly. I know you’re worried but it’ll be best to talk to him face to face._

Keith shut off his computer and turned back to his notes, he had a test coming up and biology was definitely _not_ his strong suit.

****

Halfway through studying the respiratory system there was a knock on his door.

 _It’s 8pm._ Keith thought, _who the hell is here so late?_  

A quick look through the peephole revealed that it was – unsurprisingly – Shiro.

Keith unlocked his door and was bombarded with food, he almost dropped the several Tupperware boxes that Shiro dumped into his hands.

“Wha- what is this?” Keith asked, even though he full well knew the answer.

“Kaori.” Was all Shiro said before taking off his shoes and heading straight for Keith’s room, making himself right at home.

“Ah yes, come in. Make yourself comfortable.” Keith deadpanned.

“Already on it!” Shiro yelled from his room.

After putting the copious amount of leftovers into his fridge, Keith warmed up some food and gave it to Shiro who looked at it, confused.

“What is this?” Shiro asked, then: “Oh my god it smells so good.”

“It’s biryani. Courtesy of Lance’s mom.” Keith explained at Shiro attacked the food. “She says hello and wants you to come over sometime as well.”

“Me?” Shiro said between mouthfuls. “Why me?”

Keith shrugged. “I dunno.” He took a seat on his office chair. “I guess ‘cause I talk about you a lot and she wants to meet my friends? I did say you were basically my brother, so that’s probably why.”

Shiro looked at him, faking bashfulness. “Aww I love you too bro!” He punched him on the arm ‘playfully’. Keith shot him a glare and rubbed his arm.

“But seriously that’s so cute, Lance wasn’t kidding when he said his mom basically adopted his friends.”

Keith nodded with a smile. He appreciated Aunty a lot, she didn’t go out of her way to do things for him, to treat him extra kindness – in her eyes Keith was just another one of her many children and that made him happier than he would like to admit.

“Speaking of Lance,” Shiro started nonchalantly, laying back on Keith’s bed once he finished his food. “When are you gonna ask him out?”

Keith stuttered, causing the _n_ in _bronchioles_ on the diagram he was labelling to trail off. He turned around slowly, staring at Shiro with an unimpressed look on his face.

“Not happening.”

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

Shiro tilted his head.

Keith sighed. “There’s several reasons, but it’s mostly because I’m scared because of what happened with _him.”_

Shiro let out a quiet ‘ah’ of understanding, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Keith.” There it was. Shiro’s dad voice. “You can’t let one bad experience affect you forever. Plus, Lance isn’t straight.”

“I know but, it messed me up pretty hard.” Keith admitted. “Like I said, I’m just scared.”

“Of what?”

“Fucking up.”

“ _Keith.”_

“It’s a legitimate fear! I just…need time.” He leaned back in his chair. “Why are you so insistent on me asking him out anyway? I love you Shiro, but please quit it.”

“Okay, okay.” Shiro put his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. I should’ve stopped when you said so the first time and I’m sorry for bugging you so much. It’s just –“ He rolled over to look at Keith. “I just want you to be happy. I guess now that I’m dating Allura and we don’t spend as much time together I want you to have someone special like that too. And so far he’s the best person for that, you should see your face when you talk about him.” He smirked.

Keith looked away, blushing.

“But if you’re not ready for it, I’ll stop bugging you. If that isn’t what you want, then that’s cool too. I just want what’s best for you. You deserve to be happy, no matter what kind of shit you’ve been through.”

Keith put his legs up and hugged them, resting his chin on his knees. Shiro was right, but he couldn’t help but feel that that experience left him feeling _less,_ like a piece of him was missing. It was constantly in the back of his mind whenever he talked to Lance, that somehow he would read his mind and know, causing him to never talk to Keith again.

“I just know that if _hypothetically,”_ He emphasized that word, “something were to happen with Lance, I’d have to tell him and I don’t want him to know. He’s the _last_ person I would want to know.”

“You know he’s not going to judge you or anything like that.”

“I know but,” Keith huddled his legs closer, “It’ll change his opinion of me, whether he wants it to or not.”

“He would still care about you, plus, it’ll help him understand you better and how you might act. Also, I’m pretty sure he feels the same way. Even if he doesn’t, he still cares about you a _lot.”_

“We really haven’t even known each other that long – opinions change over time.” He retorted quietly.

He heard Shiro sigh. “That’s true, but there’s people in your life you’ve technically known longer but aren’t as close to. It’s been what, five months? You know his family, his friends and he knows yours. While you guys aren’t bffs for life, you’re good friends. There’s no denying that. I think the only thing time will give you is an opportunity to get closer.”

Keith sighed, admitting defeat. Sometimes Shiro got too real on him, and he couldn’t argue.

Keith nodded, hoping the topic would be dropped and he wouldn’t have to revisit that terrible gnawing feeling in his chest.  Shiro seemed to get the message, instead asking how Lance’s party was.

The change in atmosphere was immediate, Keith mood lifted instantaneously as he told Shiro of Lance’s reaction to the gift he got him.

“Thanks, by the way,” Keith added, “You found the perfect gift. I told Lance that you found it, I texted it afterwards cause I was kinda caught up in the moment, but he says thanks! It meant a lot to him.”

Shiro gave him a puzzled look, “I’m kinda curious what you mean by that.”

“Oh it’s like, people stopped giving him space stuff because that’s what he and his dad were into together, and once his dad died they were worried about upsetting him I guess? Sam said that he lost some of his interest, probably because he didn’t have anyone to share it with, but since giving him my gift it like, sparked his interest again.”

“Ah, I see.” Shiro perked up suddenly, like he had an idea. “Why don’t you be that person for him? The one to talk about space and constellations and stuff; I remember you said you found it to be interesting.”

Keith leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling; deep in thought.

“I mean I could? But-“

“But?”

“It would be like I’m…intruding, y’know? This was something he did with his dad, a way they bonded; I don’t want to force my way into that.”

“I’m not saying to go up to him and be like: ‘Lance, I’m going to be your space buddy!’ I’m just saying that if he tries to share this hobby with you, that you should encourage it.”

Keith sat up and looked at Shiro. “Well duh! I would’ve done that without you telling me.”

Shiro chuckled. “Of course, what was I thinking? But for real, you should invite him to go star gazing or something.”

Keith made a face and moved to kick Shiro but his foot was grabbed mid-kick, so Keith tried with his other foot.

He failed miserably, and the two wrestled until somehow Shiro ended up sitting on Keith.

“Alright, mercy!” Keith kept smacking the bed, trying to get out from under Shiro.

“Not until you agree to hang out with Lance.”

“What?! We hang out a lot already!” Keith wheezed, “Shiro please, you’re like, forty pounds heavier than me!”

“I mean make the first move, he’s always inviting you, now it’s your turn to invite him!”

“I thought you’d said you cut this out!”

“I don’t mean like on a date! You gotta learn to take the initiative even with friends!”

“Alright, alright just get off me!” He shrieked while flailing.

“Okay.” He sing-songed, getting up and off of his friend.

Keith rolled over, catching his breath. He glared daggers at Shiro. “Sometimes I regret being with you this long.”

Shiro grinned at him, “Can’t choose your family, dear brother.”

***

Now that is was almost the end of the term, tests and quizzes were being administered almost every other week, at least that’s what it felt like to Lance.

He had several tests, quizzes, labs, group projects and god knows what else due near the end of November and the beginning of December. His exams weren’t until after the winter break, at the end of January, but that didn’t stop his teachers from making everything due at roughly the same time.

The change in weather also meant that soccer was put on halt until the spring, when it really started. Even without practice though, Lance was plenty busy and had little to no free time. Despite his demeanor, he cared about his grades, especially considering it was his senior year. His only downfall was that he got distracted easily, so in order to do well, he _really_ needed to focus.

University applications were also coming up, but he didn’t want to think about that until he had to, but it was hard to avoid it considering all his teachers, friends and family were all talking about scholarship applications and touring campuses and whatnot. Lance had enough on his mind right now.

It was like as soon as his birthday week ended everything was thrown at him at once, and he went from relaxed and happy to immediately incredibly stressed.

He saw his friends only in class or sometimes at the library to study, but other than that he devoted all his free time to shutting himself in his room, studying intensely and working on assignments. If he didn’t go to such extreme lengths he would hardly get anything done.

He made his family promise to avoid him at all costs and not to interrupt him even if he tried to change his mind later. Sam only went into his room to deliver snacks and food – and to occasionally smack him in the back to straighten up his hunched over back – but other than that even she barely saw him.

He was in the middle of reviewing his calculus notes when he noticed in his peripheral vision the screen on his phone light up.

It was on silent, and he would’ve ignored it if he hadn’t saw who it was from.

_Scully – Contents Hidden_

Lance paused. It was rare for Keith to text him first, Lance usually took the initiative in their conversations. The last time Keith texted him first was to ask Lance where his house was again.

With a start he realized that the last time they talked was at his birthday party, almost two weeks ago. Neither boy had uttered a word or sent a single message since then, probably too engrossed in their own lives to take out the time. Lance frowned, worried that he might have become a little too focused on his studying and unintentionally ignored Keith. At least with Pidge and Hunk he saw them at school, but with Keith, if neither of them did anything, the boys had no chances to meet.

The rarity of this event is what Lance used to justify taking a small break to check his text.

Swiping up and keying in his passcode he unlocked his phone and read the text – or more accurately the series of texts – Keith had sent, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

_|Scully (555-2601) 4:42 pm|_

_Hey dude._

_Um sorry to bother you if you’re like, studying or something._

_But did you hear about that supermoon thing coming up?_

_Correction: it’s a bloodmoon it’s when the moon appears red and it only happens once every few years!_

_But you probably already knew that._

_Basically if you’re not busy next Saturday, I thought we could go?_

_If you’re down that is. Pidge and Hunk are totally free to come too! Shiro and Allura would but they have a date or something (gross) X(_

_Anyways let me know what you think I’ll stop spamming you now :P_

Lance stared the texts, bewildered. The two had only known each other for a few months, and in all that time Keith had never invited him out, or over to his house or anything of the like. The times they met were either coincidental or because Lance had made the effort.

It wasn’t like Lance blamed Keith for not making an effort – he too knew what it was like to be afraid to put yourself out there – and it didn’t seem like Keith was the type of person to really take the lead in these types of situations. Considering all that he had been through – Lance understood.

That was why this was especially exciting for Lance – and he surprised himself at how happy he got.

Lance excitedly texted him back letting him know that _yeah dude totally! call me later tho so we can work out the deets._

***

“Holy shit. He agreed.” Keith sounded astonished.

“What reason would he have had to say no?” Shiro chided.

“I dunno, maybe he would be busy or like he was already planning to go with someone else-”

“Well even if he was, I’m sure he wouldn’t turn you down.”

“I think you’re overestimating how much he likes me.”

Shiro didn’t say anything, just raised his eyebrows at Keith, to show that he didn’t agree.

“Anyway,” Keith changed the subject. “Can you help me with my essay?”

“You know full well I suck at history as much as you do.”

“I know but you’re the smarter of us two, and Allura is too busy right now so I don’t want to ask her. Not like she’d turn me down anyway, but that girl has too much on her plate as it is.”

“I can try but dude, I’m not very good at arguing,” Shiro gave a sly smile. “That’s always been your strong suit.”

He was rewarded with another kick to the shin.

Shiro left shortly after that, after the two thoroughly confused themselves trying to argue on how the Great Purges really started in the USSR.

Keith’s phone went off a few minutes after Shiro left; it was Lance letting him know that he was free at the moment. 

Keith’s thumb hovered over the little phone icon next to Lance’s picture, and he pressed it quickly before he could fret over it any longer.

After the second ring, the other boy picked up with an enthusiastic, “Hey!”

“Hi.” Keith responded sheepishly.

“Dude, I’m actually so excited you invited me, I’ve been wanted to go for a while but I had no one to go with because it’ll be in the middle of the night and no one’s parents will let them. I wanted to go over to Sunney’s Bay, you know how there’s a big hill right?” He didn’t wait for Keith to respond. “Well it’s perfect for stargazing and stuff my dad and I went there often, be warned though it’ll be cold-” He went on for almost another minute before his excitement was interrupted by Keith’s soft laughter. Lance trailed off. “What is it?”

“Nothing it’s just” Keith didn’t try to hide his amusement. “It’s-” He was about to say _cute_. “-nice. How excited you get over this stuff.”

There was silence on the other end, and Keith was worried he said something wrong. “Lance?”

“Uh yeah, I’m here. Sorry that just…caught me off guard.”

Keith liked to imagine that the other boy was blushing right now and smiled. “It’s true though. What were you saying?”

“Right,” Lance got back on track. “Where was I? Oh yeah, I was saying you could come over and chill for a bit before we go, considering we would have to leave at the middle of the night to see it properly.” He gasped. “We could watch Bollywood movies! Oh my god it’s perfect.”

Keith laughed again. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Alright!” Lance sounded excited. “See you on Friday!”

“See you.” He said with a smile.

***

Keith arrived at Lance’s house around seven in the evening after rushing home from school and quickly packing blankets, snacks, and whatever else he thought was needed on their blood moon viewing adventure.

Lance insisted that they watch Bollywood movies, or more accurately _movie,_ as to quote Lance ‘they’re a million hours long.’

Before he could even knock the door swung open, revealing a dressed up Sam. She was turned away from him, yelling that yes, her phone was charged. She let out a yelp when she noticed Keith, clutching her chest before letting out a laugh. She smacked Keith on the shoulder, “At least say something will ya?”

“Oh sorry.” Keith replied, laughing.                                 

She looked at him up and down, nodding in what looked like approval before saying a final goodbye to him and her family before walking past him down the steps and up to a car that had driven up. She paused before getting in, turning around and yelling, “Have fun on your date!” to Keith, who’s mouth dropped open in reply.

She cackled as she got in to the car, grinning as her friend drove off.

He reddened, looking around and hoping nobody heard what she just said. Luckily the entryway to Lance’s house was empty, soft music playing in the background which Keith prayed drowned out what Sam said.

He awkwardly stepped in, knocking on the door. “Hello?” He called out.

Sadie poked her head around the corner at the top of the stairs, her eyebrows going up. She burst out into a smile and waved; Keith mirrored her gestures in reply.

“I didn’t hear you come in.” She said after he gave her a hug at the top of the stairs.

“Yeah I caught Sam on her way out.”

“Yeah she’s going to a sleepover with her friends.” Sadie explained. She turned her head towards the window. “Bhaiya! Keith is here!”

“WHAT?!” He heard Lance yell from upstairs, followed by a door opening and slamming shut and footsteps pounding down the stairs. Lance arrived at the bottom of the stairs looking flushed, fresh pillow marks on his face and his hair sticking up in several directions.

Keith let out a laugh at the sight, taken aback at how adorable he looked. “Have a nice nap?” He joked.

“You were supposed to be here at seven!” He pointed a finger at Keith.

Keith glanced at his watch. “Lance. Its seven thirty.”

Lance stopped midsentence, his face falling. Both Keith and Sadie burst out into laughter.

The taller boy huffed back upstairs, red faced and still a little groggy to go wash up.

Keith greeted the rest of the family and hung out with Sadie in the living room while they waiting for Lance. The other boy finally arrived after what felt like forever, carrying a backpack and one other long bag with him, which Keith guessed was his telescope.

Lance joined on them the couch after he finished setting up the Bollywood movie they were going to watch.

“Alright,” Lance started once he plopped onto the couch next to Keith, “this movie is _iconic_ okay? It’s legendary. Also, don’t think about what’s happening too much, it’ll be more fun that way.”

Keith gave him a look, but didn’t question it and turned his attention to the TV screen.

The movie was three and a half hours long and was the most ridiculous yet amazing thing Keith had ever seen. It was overdramatic and the music numbers were catchy and Keith laughed and cried a long with what was happening. Some cultural things just went over his head, and he had to ask Lance for clarification on a number of things, but he was mesmerized by the colours and sounds that presented themselves in the movie.

The entire movie revolved around family and familial ties, and while Keith enjoyed it for the most part, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness throughout the movie.

It ended on an even more grandiose note than it started, and Keith felt like he just went through an experience.

Lance turned to him with his signature huge grin. “So,” He started, looking bemused, “Did ya like it?”

Keith looked at him seriously. “That was the most overwhelming thing I’ve ever watched.”

Lance burst out laughing, but was quickly hushed by Sadie, who pointed a sleeping Farhan curled up on the corner of the couch. She picked him up gently and carried him upstairs, and Lance signaled to Keith that they should get going.

Aunty fussed over him all the way to the door, making sure he had his keys, his phone at full battery and sufficient food and blankets in case it got cold.

Lance drove them up north towards the bay near their city, which was famous for having a giant hill that was perfect for stargazing. The night was fairly chilly, and the forecast called for possibly some rain, so it seemed like no one else was willing to brave the weather to experience the lunar event.

Keith laid down a blanket as Lance set up his telescope. It was fairly late, but the blood moon wasn’t set to appear for about another hour or so.

As they sat on the blanket, Lance helped pass the time by naming and pointing out various starts and constellations that were visible.

Keith glanced over at Lance. He could faintly see the other boy’s face in the moonlight but his eyes were sparkling at each new star he named. He noticed that he was being watched and coughed, looking away. “Sorry, I get really excited sometimes and start rambling.” 

Keith smiled warmly at him. “No need to be sorry.”

Lance scratched the back of his neck, and if it was too dark to tell, but Keith was pretty sure he was blushing. They sat for a few more minutes, enjoying the nighttime sounds of the nearby water and the crisp air.

“As a kid I wanted to be an astronaut.” Lance chuckled, breaking the silence. “Told my dad I’d bring him the moon.”

“Why the moon?” Keith asked curiously.

Lance looked surprised, like he didn’t expect Keith to ask that. He smiled sadly, Keith was reminded how much he hated it when Lance looked like that.

“He said I was born on a night with a full moon. He used to call me his ‘chaand’ which means moon in Urdu. Because I, quote, ‘shone bright with the warmth of others.’” He laughed softly. “He had names like that for everyone. Stuff like ‘flower’ or ‘star’ or just straight up ‘dear’. Also I was born at midnight, so my dad named me something that meant ‘two nights’ or ‘like the night. I loved it.”

“Why did you change your name then?” Keith blurted out. He regretted it as soon as he said it.

Lance bristled. “Stuff.”

“Does it have to do with whatever happened to you that made you switch schools? The bullying?”

He side-eyed Keith. “How much do you know about that?”

“Not much. I tried asking Sam about it, about why your family was so protective of you and she just said you went through some stuff and that you were bullied. It was so bad you switched schools. That’s all she told me though, she said it was better if I heard the rest from you.”

Lance looked down, scowling. Eventually he closed his eyes and sighed, suddenly looking exhausted.

“Yeah I was bullied. But you already knew that.”

Keith looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t respond Keith simply asked: “Why?”

Lance laughed, but there was no humor behind it. “When you grow up the only brown kid in a class full of white kids, either they change or you do. I don’t think I need to tell you the outcome.”

“Jesus, what happened?”

“I told you how I went to a different school when we moved to a bigger house, well that school was really small. It was grade six to twelve, and pretty much everyone knew each other. Also literally ninety nine point nine percent of them were white. Listen I get it, they were kids; ignorant kids. But that still didn’t justify the stuff they said to me.

Anyway, I was on the junior soccer team. I didn’t know anyone and being the new kid, everyone took that opportunity to pick on me. ‘Oh look, it’s the brown kid.’ Lance mimicked a voice. “They made fun of my name, my skin, basically everything about me. There was a rumour going around that I wore blue contacts ‘cause I was trying to ‘be white.’ I literally had to bring in my baby photos to prove it to them, but they still didn’t let up.”

“What the fuck?!” Keith was outraged. “That’s ridiculous!”

Lance laughed and made a face that said, _tell me about it._

“But…why don’t you change it back? It seems like the people you’re with now are more accepting.”

“I can’t.” Lance’s voice was quiet. “I just _can’t_. My dad…he was all about our happiness. We were his biggest priorities. He always said to me: ‘ _baita if you asked me to bring you the moon, I would. But I wouldn’t ask that of you because I have the moon, that’s what you are for me._ ’” He looked down. “So when I came home one day and  said I hated my name, hated the way kids made fun of me he’d said he do anything to make me feel better. It went on for a while. I’m talking a few years, I stopped telling them about it after a while, but he found out anyway. So he changed my name. That was one of the last things he did for me.” He paused, breathing heavily.

“So you see, I can’t go back. I _can’t.”_ His voice broke at the end of his sentence, and Lance looked up to control the tears that were starting to form. He closed his eyes, and eventually leaned forward, burying his face in his hands. Keith could see his thin frame shaking, and for someone who was so big, at the moment he looked so small.

Keith looked at him, at this boy who comforted him on so many occasions now and was hit with the fact that he had no idea what to do. He wasn’t used to comforting people, and was still amazed at how Lance was so good at it. He stared helplessly, feeling suddenly very inadequate.

 _C’mon Cho!_ He yelled at himself. _Do something!_

He thought of all the times he had tried to help Lance before, and realized that all he did was say what he was thinking, what he believed to be the truth. But there wasn’t really anything Keith say now, this was something that had affected a big part of his life and a simple _it’ll get better_ or _you didn’t deserve that_ wouldn’t change the fact that it happened, and it was still affecting Lance to this day.

Keith raised his hand and gently rested it on Lance’s back, moving it up and down in a motion he hoped was soothing. He hesitated to do more, worried that his feelings would go haywire if he did.

 _Fuck it._ He thought before moving closer to Lance, pulling at his shoulders and encircling his large frame into a hug.

They stayed like that for a while. Keith holding Lance, the taller boy’s face buried into his neck as he cried and shook while the other rubbed his back.

Keith was overwhelmed. He wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy, sure he and Shiro would hug but he never _held_ Shiro like this, while he felt small and vulnerable, it was usually the other way around. Lance was clinging to him, there was no shyness or guilt like there was when the situation was flipped, and Keith felt a surge of pride at the fact that Lance was so comfortable with him.

“Um,” Keith started, struck with a sudden idea. “Haeju.”

“What.”

“That’s my Korean name. Haeju.” Keith broke away from the hug and looked away awkwardly. “It means the sea or the ocean.”

Lance paused for a moment before he suddenly started laughing, covering his face with his hand.

Why was he laughing? Keith thought. Oh god he’s not making fun of my name is he? He of all people would understand how it feels to be made fun of because of your na-

“Its perfect!” Lance shouted suddenly. Keith looked at him quizzically.

Lance turned to look at him, extremely amused.

“The moon and the sea! It’s like fate.” Lance’s face softened. “It was meant to be, Keith.”

He said it semi-jokingly but Keith couldn’t help the swell of emotion he felt in his chest.

Lance wiped his eyes with his sleeve before looking at Keith with surprise, his eyebrows shot up and he whipped his head around towards the sky.

“Keith, look!” Lance was pointing upwards.

The moon had finally turned a shade of brilliant red, it was eerie and fascinating, and the two boys stared in awe for a few moments.

They got up to look at it through the telescope, and Lance launched into an explanation about the mechanics of the blood moon and Keith stared at him, backlit by the moonlit, and a feeling of realization dawned on him.

He was falling in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same spiel u see da mistakes holla at ur gurl   
> also next chapter: more backstory and tears and ANGST AW YISS   
>  love u all   
> and im sorry   
> so sorry   
> i will keep writing more frequently hopefully 
> 
> ALSO DAT ONE PERSON WHO ASKED ME IF I WAS OK BLESS UR HEART IM FINE THANK Y FOR WORRYING

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/critiques are welcome! :^)


End file.
